Extended Training of Hyuuga Hinata
by Lostmydragon
Summary: Hinatas confidence is shot after lossing an easy battle and she losses everything dear to her, forced to leave the village her fate rests with a stranger Can she prove her father wrong and show her true strengh. Chap 1 only an intro read on it get better.
1. Chapter 1: The Fair

_Alright this 1__st__ chapter is just an intro, it gets better I promise, and no it's not mush about Hinata and Naruto, read and you'll get it.)_

The Fair

With their mission to protect a travelling fair from bandits over, Naruto, Hinata and Kiba decided that they may as well have some fun before they headed back to Konohua. Kiba and his pup Akamaru headed for the rides, and Naruto headed to the stalls with Hinata shyly tagging along behind him. At one stall, a group of sour looking kids were hanging around, muttering 'fixed' one with the stacked cans and a lot of very tempting prizes hanging from the roof and walls.

"Come on, come on, if anyone can knock them all down not only do they get a prize, so too do their friends!" shouted a shifty looking bloke who was monitoring. Many of the children had spent all of their money trying, and more than one was crying. Hinata, silently using byakuggan exposed the root of the problem. "That's mean, he's glued them down!" she whispered.

"Was he with the fair?" ask Naruto, he couldn't remember seeing him before.

"No, it looks like he's just one of the scam artists who follows along behind."

"Let's show him then." Naruto smirked. Even though they were glued down to the floor, Naruto, thanks to kunai training and his higher than normal strength, managed to knock all cans down with a single throw.

"Huh? Fine…pick a prize…then get lost!" said the sour vender. Naruto chose a silly frog hat that looked a lot like his little green wallet.

"But what about my friends? You did say… Right guys?" said Naruto, looking over his shoulder and beckoning to all of the children. Soon they cleared out the stall of all prizes to the curses of the conman. Afterwards Naruto and Hinata got some sweets and meet up with Kiba and Akamaru on the rides, Kiba was sporting a fake ANBU wolf mask and Akamaru with a set of sunglasses which were very cute on the little white puppy. After some more wondering around the fair, the four of them squeezed into a photo booth. Each took a photo from the four that came out and Kiba pointed out that it was late. They spent one final night with the fair then in the morning the four started back on their way home, to the hidden leaf village of Konohua.

"Hey, Hinata," said Naruto while they walked, he still wearing his silly hat and making Hinata giggle every so often as the bobble eyes of the frog bounced as he walked.

"Didn't you get anything at that stall last night?"

"um…no Naruto-kun…" she had her eye on a bracelet made up of a woven cord band of three colours, blue, red and purple with a jade charm on it with a 'fire' symbol craved into it, but it was already gone when she went to get it.

"Oh…well that's not fair is it? You were the only real friend of mine there…" Hinata's heart fluttered a little. "I got a hold of this before one of the kids snatched it…I noticed you looking at it…" he held out the bracelet.

"Thanks Naruto…" she hugged him quickly then blushed, letting go.

"It's ok!" he said grinning.

"Ah no fair!" said Kiba who wasn't paying attention to them, he was trying to adjust the string on his mask. The road was blocked by a land slide, they where halfway home.

"We have to climb over" Hinata said quietly, playing with the bracelet Naruto had just given her.

"Look's like it" moaned Kiba, putting the mask inside his coat and started climbing. Halfway up some loose rocks tumbled down the slope knocking lose larger rocks, trying to dodge these caused Hinata to lose her footing and slip, the rock under her hand came lose as well and she fell backwards. Naruto, who was still at the bottom, caught her.

"You ok Hinata?" she didn't answer, just stared at him wide eyed and her face flushed bright red. "Hinata?" asked Naruto in a concerned voice. In her head, all Hinata could think was _"he's holding me…Naruto-kun!! Say something! He's so close…Arggghh!"_ It was all too much for Hinata and she passed out. "Hinata!" Naruto yelled, shocked.

"You two ok down there?" yelled Kiba, oblivious to what had transpired in Hinata's mind.

"Yap!" Kiba and Akamaru called from atop the rocks. "Er…yeah I think so…" said Naruto, unsure of what to do.

Hinata awoke a little while later but not into a much better situation. She woke up staring right into onr of the bobble eyes of Naruto's frog hat. Naruto was carrying her on his back. Neither Kiba nor Naruto had noticed that she had come around, Akamaru was on Kiba's back as if copying her on Naruto. Akamaru noticed Hinata and jumped over onto Nartuo's head to lick at her face. This however startled Naruto and he tripped over a rock on the road and fell forward.

"Sorry Naruto-kun…" mumbled Hinata as she scrabbled off his back, with a bright red face. Naruto rolled over and held his nose.

"It wasn't your fault Hinata… it was you" he said while throwing a stick at Akamaru, who thought is was a game of fetch. Kiba laughed at Naruto's scowl and dirt covered face but offered his hand to pull him off the ground.

"Thanks…" Akamaru came running back with the stick and jumped into Kiba's arms.

"It's going to be dark soon we should find a place to camp and pitch-up the tents, it looks like it might rain later too." Hinata agreed and looked on down the road, playing absentmindedly with the bracelet Naruto had given her. Naruto lead the way down the path with Hinata behind and Kiba, continuing the game of fetch with Akamaru, behind them. It didn't take long to find a spot near a stream and not far from the road. A rocky outcrop would protect the tents from any wind and the trees many braches overhead would take most of the rain fall. The two tents where put up quickly, one for the two boys and one for Hinata. After an incident with another team this was enforced. The rain held off well after night fall. The three of them sat outside the tents around the fire for a while, Kiba started a ghost story which engrossed both Hinata and Naruto and as the story when on their eyes darted around to the shadows and they edged closer together. Kiba grinned evilly and pulled out a flash light to shine under his chin.

"They thought they had got away… but…" Naruto and Hinata leant in listening, Naruto gulped.

"But then… almost from no where…." Kiba continued in a low dangerous voice. Suddenly Akamaru jumped on them from behind and barked. Both Naruto and Hinata jumped and screamed and flung their arms around each other. Kiba fell off the log he was sitting on doubled over with laughter Akamaru doing the same. But Naruto and Hinata were staring into each others wide eyes, frozen and unsure of what to make of the close proximity of the other. Hinata slowly turned red; her heart hadn't slowed down from the scare and seemed it would burst in her chest. Kiba stopped laughing he hadn't received the punch or scolding he had been expecting.

"Eh?" he peeked up over the log to see both of them still with their arms around the other and both stared into the others eyes, what was stranger was that Naruto was matching Hinata's usual red face. Kiba watched for a second, confused, neither seemed to even be breathing.

"Hey!" he shouted standing up, Hinata finally pulled her arms off of Naruto with a mumbled apology, Naruto pulled his back too and rubbed the back of his head with a silly half smile. Kiba looked from one to the other and back for a few minutes. Both where now looking away from the other, Hinata playing with her fingertips as always and Naruto still rubbing his head, both were a bright beetroot red, neither intending to say anything. Akamaru also seemed as confused as Kiba and looked at them with his head slanted sideways.

"Oh…. I see what's going on here." He said with a smirk, they both looked at him, "If you two wanted to be alone all you had to do was ask." He finished, picked up Akamaru and headed to his tent, "Night lovebirds" he joked and laughed out loud as he ducked under the flap.

"Hey… it's not like that!" started Naruto after him.

"Oh…" muttered Hinata looking down and playing with the bracelet again. Naruto watched her play with it and finally the obvious smacked him in the face.

"If we wanted to be alone we would have knocked him out" he added jokingly to her. Hinata looked up at him and giggled before looking back down and blushing. Naruto laughed nervously and looked away again; he really had no idea of where to go from here. Turning back towards Hinata he noticed that she was looked right at him again and his mind went blank. Normally he could talk freely to Hinata and she would just listen and add a small comment every now and again, so why couldn't he do it now.

"Um… Hinata… I um…" Naruto started, still not meeting her pearly eyes.

"Yes, Naruto-kun?" She asked sounding very hopeful.

"I… well… I guess that I have always… kinda well ….liked you…." He said, almost as quietly as Hinata herself spoke

"Really! Naruto-kun?" she sounded shocked and looked at him with her wide eyes and small smile, which he found cute.

"Well yeah…" he replied, his face was still beetroot red.

They where both spared an awkward silence by the beginnings of rain fall, so they both said they're red faced good nights and went to their respective tents. Kiba was just crawling into his sleeping bag when Naruto came in, Akamaru was already asleep on the end of it.

"So, how'd it go?" he asked grinning up at him.

"Shut up." Was all that Naruto offered and got into his own sleeping bag. Naruto pulled off the silly frog hat and threw in on top of his bag. All he could think of was that he must have sounded like an idiot.

Meanwhile in the other tent Hinata was grinning widely, Naruto really did like her and she slept with a large grin on her face.

Not much further down the road was another camp. Five men sat around a sputtering camp fire, as it was being slowly drowned by the rain. One was trying desperately to keep it alive, but he was losing the battle as the rain got heavier.

"We could have been in an inn now, if those brats hadn't stopped us…" muttered one.

"Well how where we to know that they would hire ninja to protect them?" snapped back another wrapping a bandage around a dog bite on his arm.

"They where only kids… how could we lose to them?" said another.

"Give it up Kogi, that fires going out no matter what!" the dog bitten one snapped at the short guy at the fire. Kogi sighed and sat back.

"A travelling fair… think of the money we could have got out of that… Jumpi" said the first one to the bitten man.

"That's why I choose it!" Jumpi snapped tying off the bandage. "That mutt had sharp teeth… anyway we came by this way because the road runs along a white water river and is frequented by traders, if we jump them around here, from front and behind there's no where for them to run. Then we get our pay day" Jumpi grinned evilly, the other men matched his smirk despite the heavy rain, they had high hopes for the next day.

_End chap 1_

_J__ust to start off it gets better…_

_(legal crap: In the writing of this I (Lostmydragon) fully understand that each character is legally copyright and property of their respective owners)_


	2. Chapter 2: White Water

_Alright here we go, next chapter, now it starts to get good, don't forget to leave a review_

White Water

"You're not folding it right Naruto!" shouted Kiba struggling to hold one of the tents into a tight bungle while Hinata slipped the tent bag over it, Naruto was struggling to fold the tent but it kept poking loose and slipping from his grasp, Akamaru wasn't helping by darting around the muddy camp. Hinata left Kiba to tie the tent bag closed and went to help Naruto with the other tent. While they folded it tightly together their hands brushed together. Both blushed and drew back, releasing the tent which sprang back open, forcing the two apart. Kiba laughed at their shocked expressions and made a move to help them fold up the last tent. Once that was done they shouldered their back packs and started off down the road again. Kiba whistled a tune as he walked out in front, Akamaru was splashing about in the puddles on the muddy road. Hinata and Naruto walked behind casting quick glances in the others direction, at last their eyes met, Hinata blushed and Naruto gave her an answering grin. Hinata matched pace with him and soon they where walking side by side. Naruto's hand twitched several times before he could get the signal from his mind to his hand to move. When he finally did his hand reached out and slipped his fingers in between Hinata's. Her heart skipped a number of beats but she smiled none the less and the usual blush tinted her cheeks, she didn't try to pull away but closed her fingers around his. Kiba was unaware of the activity going on behind him and continued to whistle a little tune. A mud caked Akamaru still jumping into puddles. The path continued on, to the left was the woods but on the right the path gave way to a fast flowing river, the heavy rain the night before had swelled its banks and the current was swift, thick branches and some other debris was caught up in the water and smashed against the rocks. Almost instinctively they walked as far away from the river as the path would allow and Kiba picked up Akamaru, getting muddy paw prints on his coat.

"What's that?" chimed Hinata. Further on down the path were a number of people trying to shift a cart that had become lodged in the mud of the path. A number of men pushed at the back and a few others pulled from the front. A few slipped in the mud.

"Stop, this isn't working!" one shouted standing back.

"Why not stick wood or rocks under the wheels to get a bit of traction." Kiba offered as they came up on the cart.

"That could work…" said the man and sent some boys to gather thick branches and flat rocks.

"We should give them a hand…" said Hinata quietly behind Kiba, she had let go of Naruto' hand as they came up on the cart. Naruto agreed and soon they both roped Kiba into agreeing too. The wood and rocks where forced into the soft mud under the front of the wheels and for a short distance in front of each wheel.

"That should work!" one mud cover man exclaimed.

"Right, lets try this again." The leader said and took up his place at the rear of the cart, Naruto and Kiba joined him while Hinata held Akamaru out of the way and made sure the cart stayed on line with the make-shift pathway. The pathway did it and the cart bounced up on to rocks and out on to the road again.

"Thanks" The man said and they started off down the road again at a quick pace, "Sorry we really got to get a move on we've late as it is, thanks again" and with that they disappeared around the bend of the path. The three ninja set off at a slightly slower pace heading the same way.

"Bandits!" the shout came from ahead. Kiba, Naruto and Hinata ran in the direction of the shouts.

"Hand over the money" the one called Kogi growled holding a knife to one of the small boy's necks.

"He doesn't like asking twice" sneered Jumpi, the other three bandits blocked the road both ways.

"Don't hurt him! We have nothing of value!" pleaded one of the travellers.

"Nothing of value?" chuckled Kogi, "we'll see about that." He pressed the knife closer to the boy's throat.

"Jyuurikan!" Hinata came from behind, pulling the knife wielding arm away and slamming her hand into the bandit's side, sending him flying across the path.

"You again!" shouted Jumpi as Naruto jumped over the cart and kicked another bandit in the face, closely followed by two Kiba's (one a transformed Akamaru) taking out the other two bandits. Jumpi drew a long dangerous looking knife and dived for the closest target, which were Hinata and the little boy.

Hinata stepped in front of the scared boy and deflected Jumpi's blade. The force caused her to stagger back on to the swollen banks of the river. By this time the other bandits had gotten back up and kept Kiba, Akamaru and Naruto from helping Hinata. Jumpi continued to rain blows on her she deflected them easily with her kunai, but she found it difficult to move, her feet was sinking into the wet mud on the bank. The loose mud under their feet began to slip and erode away with the fast flowing water. The boy behind Hinata slipped backwards, her hand snaked out and she grabbed the front of the boy's jacket stopping him falling into the river. Seeing an opening Jumpi lunged forward, Hinata just managed to block this but his weight on the small ledge of mud made it give way.

"Hinata!" shouted both Naruto and Kiba, disposing of their opponents they ran for the falling ledge. Hinata's feet where still shin deep in the mud, she couldn't jump away, and in an attempt to keep his balance Jumpi had grabbed a fistful of her jacket. Hinata did what she could and pulled the young boy from the mud and threw him to safety. He was caught by Kiba, Naruto ran past and grabbed Hinata's wrist, But Jumpi's added weight pulled her out of his grasp and both plunged into the swirling waters. Jumpi was swept away on down the river but Hinata collided with a rock and managed to hold on. Winded, she gasped for breath as the water broke on her back trying to wrestle her from the rock.

"Hinata! Hold on!"

"We're coming!" Naruto, Kiba and Akamaru (back in dog from) sprinted down the bank, some of the travellers followed after fishing a long strong rope from the cart. Naruto threw off his jacket and tied the rope around his waist and dived in the cold waters, Kiba kept a firm grip on the rope along with the travellers. Naruto swam into the centre of the river and let the swift current pull him towards the rock to which Hinata was clinging. He caught a hold the rock, barely, it was coated in allege making holding on a hard task. Hinata was still choking for breath, the impact with the rock had broken some ribs.

"Naruto-kun?" She choked, the river water was pressing her against the rock putting pressure on her fragile ribs.

"Give me your hand Hinata-chan" holding on to the best hand hold he could get he grabbed Hinata's left arm and held it tightly.

"Naruto! Watch out!" Shout Kiba from the bank. A large log was crashing it's way down the river. Hinata grabbed Naruto's other wrist and pushed off the rock. The log bounced off another rock and sailed over Naruto's head but came down on top of Hinata forcing her back against the rock with a sickening crunch, pinning Naruto's right arm as well. With neither gripping the rock the current pulled them back into the rivers main flow. Hinata's grip failed on Naruto's wrist but he held her arm tightly, Kiba and the others on the bank pulled in the rope as fast as they could. The fast flowing water was pulling Hinata from Naruto's grip, he tried to grab her with his other hand as well but it had been crushed by the log. In a brief moment the water broke away giving him a clear view of Hinata. Her eyes where closed, face blank and her body hanging limp from his grasp. She slipped a little further from his grip.

"Hurry up!" shouted Kiba from the bank. He couldn't see what was happening in the water and feared for the worst, they had lost sight of the two of them after the log pulled them from the rock.

"Hinata!" shouted Naruto spiting water from his mouth, his hand slipped a little more he was now only holding her by the wrist. With another surge of power the river ripped Hinata's hand from Naruto's grasp and she disappeared into the white froth on the water. Kiba finally pulled Naruto back to the bank, he didn't have Hinata and he just stared into the water with a disbelieving expression, his right arm hung at a strange angle and clutched tightly in his left hand was her bracelet.

"Naruto?" Kiba pulled him to his feet. "What happened?"

"She… she's gone…"

"WHAT? HOW? The log?" Naruto hung his head. Kiba looked back down the river saying nothing, Akamaru whined and with the water running down his face from his hair no one noticed the tears from Naruto's eyes. He clutched the bracelet tightly in his hand. _I really did like you, but I couldn't save you…_

_End chap 2_

_Don't hurt me!!! The next one will be posted soon!! (skiploompidgey has already punched me for this)_


	3. Chapter 3: New Jonin

_Okay chill out!! Now we find out with what really happened to Hinata._

New Jonin

"Two days walk from Konohua. Nearly there" the woman muttered to herself as she rested at a way station shack. A one roomed cabin on the road for travellers to take shelter in over night. It was getting late and she had been walking most of the day. Lifting her canteens from her back pack she headed towards the river that was behind the shack. The small flood had receded and the mud had settled back down on to the river bed the forceful current had also died down. Crouching down she filled her empty canteens. Some thing caught her eye, a shape on the smooth swept river bank. The woman went to investigate. It was a man, he was dead and bore tattoos of a bandit clan, in his hand was a jacket in a death grip. The small jacket had a fire swirl on the back and was a light grey. The woman crouched over him, the river had killed him and it had been a few hours ago. Coughing make her look up further down the bank some one else was trying to crawl from the river. It was a girl. Her left arm was obviously broken and she struggled to move. The woman dropped her canteens and ran to the girl, the girl tried to pull out a kunai but her trembling hands prevented her from gripping it and it fell into the shallow water, she passed out and fell after the kunai. The woman lifted the girls face from the water, she was breathing, she must have been caught in the river as well her body had been beaten by the debris. The woman paused, around the girls neck was a forehead protector. She was a shinobi, a Konohua shinobi, a genin by the looks of her. The woman scooped up the unconscious girl and took her back to the way station. She needed help.

Hinata woke in a darkened room. A fire was crackling nearby casting dancing shadows around the small room. She looked around groggily, leaning against the wall in the shadows was a figure with arms crossed across its chest, head drooped. Asleep.

"N.. Naruto…" she whispered, the figure stirred and got up coming towards her. _No not Naruto… _she thought before passing out again. When she next awoke it was day and she was more aware of her situation. The small room was empty, the fire still burned in the grate. Hinata's arm was in a sling and her torso was wrapped tightly with clean bandages. Near the mat she lay on was a small pile of used bandages.

_Where am I? _She thought and carefully pushed herself to her knees ignoring the dull pain in her chest. There was little more to the room. A large travel backpack was leant against the wall. Only one, and too large to be carried by one of her friends. It was travel stained and seemed well worn and leaning next to it was a katana. The door opened and a woman stepped in with a bungle of wood under her arm. Hinata froze, not sure of what to do. The woman saw her, but smiled.

"You're awake" she said simply and sat down the wood and closed the door. "How are you feeling?" she asked and crouched down to bring herself level with Hinata. The woman had short jet black hair that was pulled back into a small tuft just above her neck, she had soft grey eyes with a scar stretching vertically across her right eye and it continued up into her hair line. She was dressed in blue trousers and a black vest top with a fishnet shirt underneath that ran down her arms, on her biceps where identical tattoos of black panthers.

"I… I feel okay…" said Hinata quietly lifting her finger to her mouth and cast her eyes to the floor.

"You're a Hyuuga from Konohua aren't you?" the woman said

"How did you know?" asked Hinata, the woman just smiled

"What's your name kid?"

"Um…Hinata…" she said.

"Hinata? That means your lord Huyga's oldest child. Well then pleased to meet you Hinata, I'm Royki Takara." The woman said standing. Then Hinata knew how she knew who she was. On Takara's belt the buckle was a Konohua forehead protector.

"Here eat this…" Takara offered her a bowl of rice from a pot hung over the grate. "You've been out for a while and you'll need your strength." Hinata accepted the bowl and thanked the woman as she released just how hungry she was.

"So tell me, how did you end up in the river?" asked Takara getting herself a bowl of rice and sat cross legged on the ground to eat.

"Well…I…"

"Speak up kid I can't hear you" Hinata blushed and spoke a little louder than normal.

Hinata explained the mission and the ambush, but she could only remember up to when Naruto jumped into the water after her.

"Naruto? You mumbled that name a few times in your sleep." Hinata blushed, and Takara gave a small smile but said nothing. They ate in silence for a few minutes until Hinata finally asked.

"Are you from the hidden leaf village? I've never seen you there before." Takara nodded as she chewed.

"That's understandable, I've haven't been in the village for seven years."

"Seven years? Why?"

"I've been on a long term mission… a very long term mission." She answered, with a small sigh.

"What kind of mission takes seven years?" Hinata wondered aloud.

"A V.I.P escort/bodyguard mission… he was a travelling scholar gathering information about ninja skills, he was planning to write a basic text book for academies in all countries but some of the things he was going to add where secret techniques of certain villages, hence my role, but in the end a village leader just asked him not to. Surprisingly that worked, so the book now is about basic techniques. Things like Tai jutsu and techniques like element clones and so on. He finally finished it last month, it was published and I was able to come home."

"That seems a bit of a waste…" said Hinata

"I know, but I learned a good few of those techniques in the process and the village was paid well for the continued service, and he got his book finished, so it wasn't a total waste."

"So you'll be glad to get back to the village"

"Oh yeah… speaking of, you think you can walk?" Takara asked cleaning off the now empty bowls, and packing them away into the travel bag. Takara was no medical ninja but she did what she could for Hinata and she had been out cold for nearly a week so her ribs would be healed enough to walk at a slow pace without pain, but her arm was still broken, there was nothing she could do for that.

"Hai" answered Hinata, with a smile, she liked this woman. She got off the mat and helped to gather things together, ignoring the constant throb of her ribs and tightly bound arm. Takara picked up a jonin jacket and put it on and slipped the katana through belt loops at the back of her trousers so the sword lay horizontal across her waist and she shouldered the heavy looking pack.

"How far are we from Konohua Takara-sama?" Hinata asked, and again Takara got her to repeat herself a little louder.

"About two days walk. Up for it?" Takara asked.

"Hai" she answered and they set off down the road at a slow pace. While they walked Takara asked Hinata if she knew certain people, most where jonin like Kurena sensei and Kakashi, and in return Takara told her stories of her travels.

In Konohua the Huyga's wore black arm bands to show mourning for the lost heir to the main branch family. But when Lord Hyuuga was told the news he showed no grief, or any emotion all.

"Bandits?" he asked Naruto and Kiba in Tsunade's office.

"Yes sir, we tried to help her but…" Kiba started

"There was no need to." Hiashi interrupted, without saying anything else he left the office leaving Naruto, Kiba and even Tsunade shocked at his cold attitude, he did not even take Hinata's backpack with him.

"How could he be so…" ranted Kiba glaring at the closed door.

"It's like he didn't even care!" Naruto said angrily clutching his left hand so tight that his nails dug into his palm.

"There's nothing we can do about that… Kiba, Naruto"

"Hai" both answered.

"You are dismissed, Naruto get back to the hospital and get Sakura to look at that arm" The boys left the office while Tsunade reluctantly removed Hyuuga Hinata's page from the genin register.

As they walked down the hall Naruto had become silent, he had been like this since Kiba pulled him from the river and Kiba also noticed that the bracelet on his left wrist was the one he had given to Hinata two days ago.

"Look … Naruto… we did what we could to save her… there was nothing else you could have done, its not your fault." Kiba tried to lift Naruto's depression.

"Then why does it feel like it is…" Naruto replied and left Kiba standing in the hall. Naruto had a point though, there really was nothing they could have done but the weight of the incident was still on his mind. Kiba shoved his hands in his pockets and found the picture from the photo booth. He was on the left of the picture with Akamaru on his head, Naruto was in the back with a large grin and in the foreground was Hinata smiling shyly. Kiba remembered the night before when they were in the camp, and how he had poked fun at those two. Suddenly he remembered the bracelet, and how Naruto was first in the water.

"Holy shit… so that's why he's …"

That had been a week ago everyone now knew that Hinata was gone, the black bands where gone from all the Huyga's, Hiashi hadn't even had a proper memorial for his lost daughter. Things seemed to be going back to the normal routine. Expect Naruto, although his arm healed quickly, thanks to the nine tailed fox, his mood hadn't improved and he often wondered off on his own usually down the road from the village. Even with the efforts of the other genin to cheer him up but nothing seemed to work.

"There's one of 'em now."

"Aye, there's no mistaking that orange jacket."

"I told you he comes this way a lot" the exchange took place between a number of men from the same bandit clan that Jumpi had belonged to.

"No one gets away with killing one of ours!"

"Get ready!" there were seven of them this time and they jumped out and surrounded Naruto.

"Huh!?" he drew a kunai and took on a fighting stance. All at once the seven men rushed him he managed to dodge the first few swipes and jump over one of the men but he was out numbered and this wasn't going well. Naruto jumped back to avoid getting hit with a club, but he had backed right into the path of another bandits attack.

"Jyuurikan!!" the bandit was thrown to the side by a powerful blow.

"Hinata!?" Naruto stared wide eyed at the kunai wielding ghost in front of him. "Your alive!?"

She just cast him a quick smile and blocked another strike. A woman Naruto didn't know had also appeared and was quickly dispatching the bandits with lightening fast Tai jutsu. Hinata had one arm in a sling so she had only the one to defend herself so when she blocked a blow the bandit swung with his other arm and punched her in the stomach, she fell to her knees clutching her midsection while Naruto slammed his fist into the face of the bandit that had done it.

"Hinata!" he crouched next to her, a small trickle of blood ran from the corner of her mouth and she coughed up more.

The other ninja took care of the other bandits easily and rushed to her other side. Hinata was coughing violently and bringing up more blood with each one.

"One of her broken ribs has priced a lung!" The jonin scooped up Hinata and despite the heavy rucksack sprinted off in the direction of the village at great speed. Naruto bolted after her.

"You! Go get Tsunade-sama, quickly!" she shouted at him not breaking pace.

"Right!" as soon as they entered the gates Naruto headed straight north to the Hokage's residence while the woman turned right and headed for the hospital. Naruto jumped on to the roofs and made it across the village in record time and sprinted up the stairs towards 5th's office.

"Kiba, I called you here because I feel its time you got back to missions, I know it seems a little heartless but you know…" Naruto crashed through the door cutting off Tsunade.

"Naruto!" she shouted angrily.

"HINATASTILLALIVENEEDSMEDICALNINJITSU!!!!" both Kiba and Tsunade just stared.

"I didn't catch a word of that…" said Kiba as Naruto gasped for breath.

"Hinata…. Still alive… in hospital…" Naruto panted leaning on his knees.

"NANI???" both Kiba and Tsunade shouted. Tsunade vaulted over her desk and headed out the door at speed with Kiba and Naruto closely following.

"Kiba, go inform lord Hyuuga" Tsunade barked as they darted over the rooftops.

"Hai!" Kiba ran off in the direction of the Hyuuga compound. As he ran in the gates he collided with Neji.

"Where's Lord Hyuuga!?" Kiba asked urgently pulling Neji off the ground.

"What's this about Kiba?" asked Neji checking if his nose was bleeding.

"Hinata's still alive, she's at the hospital now!"

"Really… follow me" Neji lead the way into the compound.

_End chap 3_

_Okay, Takara is a character of my creation, _

_**Creation whadda mean? Who are you? (Takara)**_

_I'm the writer… anyway, the next chapter will be up soon. Read and review please_

_**Okay now seriously, who are you?**_


	4. Chapter 4: Cold Father

_**Ha I'm finally home!!**_

_Eh… yeah… sure, here ya go the next one enjoy people, any__way If ya read gone leave me a review please._

_**I'm home!**_

_Takara, shut up…_

Cold Father

In the hospital Takara had handed Hinata over to the medical ninja and Tsunade had arrived a short time later with the boy from before.

"Her left arm's broken and so are a few ribs, she sustained a blow not long ago and I think one of the broken ribs has pierced a lung" she informed Tsunade as she walked to the treatment room. As the 5th strode into the room Naruto caught a glimpse of Hinata on the table with an oxygen mask over her face, then the door snapped closed.

"Will she be okay?" Naruto asked the jonin.

"She should be now that Tsunade-sama is here, I shouldn't have made her walk yet…" the woman muttered to herself, shaking her head grimly. "Come on lets go to the waiting room this may take a while." She added to Naruto and walked down the hall to a small room filled with chairs. In here she took off her backpack and katana and sat to wait with folded arms. Kiba skidded past the open door catching the door frame and pulling himself it to the room, Neji and Kurena, Hinata's teams jonin, followed, they had met with her on the way and explained what was happening.

"Where is she, Naruto?" panted Kiba, Akamaru was panting at his heels.

"In the treatment room, Tsunade-sama is in there now." He answered.

"Naruto?" Takara muttered to herself, _so that's the guy._

"What's wrong with her?" asked Neji.

"She has a broken arm and several broken ribs for starters the internal damage was not that severe but after that strike to the ribs out side the village that changed." The woman in the chair intoned. Kurena stared at the stranger for a minute, she knew her somehow.

"Takara?" she chanced, the woman looked at her. "It is you! When did you get back?" she said with a slight smile despite the situation.

"Kurena, long time no see, just now I brought the Hyuuga back with me." Takara got out of the chair and walked over to Kurena, also smiling showing off fang like incisor teeth. Any further conversation was interrupted by Lord Hyuuga entering the room.

"So you are the one I am to thank for the return of my eldest child." He stated without any emotion.

"So where is she?"

"In the treatment room Hiashi-sama." Answered Neji quickly.

"Then I shall return later." With that cold statement Hiashi turned and left the room.

"That son of a…" started Naruto

"Hiashi hasn't changed at all then?" Takara said over Naruto glaring out the door.

"No, it's sad but it seems he never did have any love for Hinata…" Answered Kurena, this was no news to Kiba but Naruto had never heard of this before.

"What?" He asked in disbelief

"It's why she worked so hard to try and get her fathers approval." Said Kiba

"But Hinata is strong…" said Naruto, he was thinking of the time when Kiba, Hinata, Shino and himself had been sent to find the scent bug and how Hinata had taken on and defeated the three bee ninja's on her own and even the huge queen bee failed to break through her defensive jutsu, she had proved then she was strong than anyone thought, and her determination could rival Naruto's.

"Unfortunately Lord Hyuuga doesn't see it that way. His expectations are too high for her." Said Kurena, shaking her head sadly. Tsunade came into the room wiping sweat from her brow.

"She should be fine now, but I've given her a sedative to help her sleep. Kiba didn't I ask you to get Lord Hyuuga?" she said turning on the boy.

"He came and left. Said he'd be back later." Kurena told her. Tsunade scowled, she knew how little he cared for Hinata and she didn't like it but there was nothing she could really do about it.

"Well all she needs now is rest until her ribs and arm heals. I'll have Sakura keep an eye on her. Now then who are you?" Tsunade addressed Takara, with a raised eyebrow and a stern look on her face as if this person was to blame for Hinata's injures.

"Royki Takara, a jonin of the hidden leaf village." She answered, standing to attention for the hokage.

"Royki? … as in the Serpent Bloods? Ah you're that one who's been gone for what…"

"Seven years" she intoned, Tsunade scowled at the interruption.

"I think I recall a file about that. Well come on and give me your report then."

"Hai, Hokage-sama" Takara lifted her Katana and pack and followed after Tsunade.

"Royki Takara is back in Konohua eh? I'd better tell the others about this." Kurena smiled to herself.

"Kurena-sensei?" Kiba started as they headed outside (they weren't allowed to see Hinata just yet).

"Hmm?"

"Who is Takara?"

"She is a Jonin just like me, she was in Gai and Asuma's team when they were younger and was in our age group from the academy. She's also an ANBU. She is quite the fighter. Gai and Kakashi are going to have to know about her coming back." Kurena smiled to herself. With that Kurena walked off to try and find the other jonins and found them hanging out in the town

"Hey, guess what…"

_End chap 4_

_Well see we're getting into the main story now, yay if ya like this make sure you gimme a review._

_**Are you saying I'm just a character in this kids mind? Ah great!!!**_

_Oi ease up…_


	5. Chapter 5: Gai's Old Flame

_Ok back again heres the next one_

_**Why am I not liking the title of this chapter….**_

_Err… they will…._

Gai's old Flame

Takara's briefing didn't really last that long, once Shizme had found the mission file, it was hidden away in the stacks of the store room next to Hokages office. Takara laid out her mission, the places it had taken her to and a large amount of useful intelligence she had uncovered. Once they finished Takara headed to the dorms. This was a block of flats that served for accommodation for jonin like herself who where normally out of the village on missions for long spaces of time, it was a one bedroom apartment with a small kitchen dining area and a bathroom. Takara left her stuff on the bed in the flat Tsunade had given her the key for. The place was completely empty, with bare walls and empty cabinets and Takara wanted a decent meal for the first time in a long while so she got washed, changed into clean clothes lifted her wallet and headed back into the town wondering where she would eat.

"Takara's back!?" shouted Gai when Kurena told him. She had found him with Kakashi, Asuma and Iruka.

"Yeah she came back this morning. You should see her she's changed a lot. I only recognized her because of the scar Asuma gave her."

"You are never going to let me forget that are you?" whined Asuma

"Well you nearly did blind her…" said Kakashi, nose buried into his Ichi Ichi novel.

"Come on I was only a genin and she was fine." Asuma argued, "Like you never made a mistake"

"She's back…. I got to go" Gai ran off the street nearly knocking over Tenten and Ino.

"What's his rush?" said Ino jumping out of the way.

"An old friend of ours is back in town, Gai used to date her." Said Kakashi.

"Gai-sensei had a girlfriend?" asked Tenten in disbelief.

"Why did they break up?" Iruka asked Asuma, who shrugged.

"Can't remember, it was years ago. Ino have you seen Shikamaru or Chouji?"

"Yeah they're coming to meet us here soon, like you said, Asuma-sensei" answered Ino,

"Right you wait here and tell them to meet me in the training grounds, I'm going to make myself scarce before Snake eyes shows up." Asuma muttered, thinking that maybe Takara hadn't forgot about the kunai incident either and wondered why Iruka was waving his hands and shaking his head at him.

"I hate that nick name…" Asuma froze, and turned slowly. Takara was behind him.

"Takara! Your back! Hey long time no see!" Asuma started and rubbed the back of his head.

"Hey, how is everyone?" she asked ignoring Asuma's nervous laughing. Kakashi looked her up and down.

"We're all fine, but you certainly have changed, how was the trip?"

"Long. I'm glad to be back though." She said draping one arm around Asuma's shoulders and looking at him dangerously with her scared eye. "I've missed my old team mates."

"Asuma-sensei?" Ino said. "Shikamaru and Chouji are here."

"Sensei? Aw don't tell me you lot have genin teams…" Takara said releasing Asuma from a near head lock and looking at the three genin (and Shikamaru) standing nearby.

"Yeah… just after you headed out on that mission we started taking teams from the academy, we where expecting you to be back in a few months so we tried to get a team set aside for you but …" Kurena explained and shrugged.

"So what are you going to do now Takara?" cut in Kakashi.

"Dunno, I'd like to have a genin team but we'll have to see what Tsunade has in mind. I have a week off duty to settle back in anyway."

"Oh yeah you always did want to be a squad leader." Said Asuma, Takara nodded.

"We were planning a tactical exercise with our genin later why don't you tag along." Asked Asuma placing a hand on the shoulder of Shikamaru, who was closest to him. ("Troublesome")

"Sounds good Asuma, I'll be there."

"Okay then well my team is here we should get going." Asuma said quickly and nearly dragged Shikamaru after him down the street.

"He still thinks I'm after him doesn't he?" asked Takara

"Yeah, but you are, aren't you?" asked Kurena.

"Nah, not anymore. You'd be surprised how effective this is to deter losers." Takara answered with a chuckle and touched her forehead next to the scar. Kurena laughed and even Tenten chuckled.

"Why are you still here Tenten?" asked Iruka.

"I was told to meet Gai-sensei here but he ran off, remember."

"Gai?" asked Takara.

"Yes?" came a voice behind her, Tenten's jaw dropped, Kakashi's eyebrow raised, Kurena sniggered, Iruka shook his head and Takara gave a small smile. Gai was there in a plain blue three piece suit with a pink shirt, his hair was brushed flat with a bunch of flowers in his hands and a smile. Kurena, Kakashi and Iruka made excuses and headed off leaving Takara, Gai and a very uncomfortable Tenten.

"Well, well if it isn't Might Gai." Chuckled Takara

"Ah my old flame Takara! You have finally returned from your mission. These are for you." He said handing her the flowers. Tenten squirmed at the scene.

"That's sweet Gai but we haven't been a couple for years, I told you I just wanted to be friends." She smiled at the man in front for her and pushed aside the flowers that had been shoved in her face.

"Well then at least allow me to treat an old friend to dinner." He chanced chucking the flowers into a nearby bin, Takara raised an eyebrow at him and smirked.

"Okay then Gai" she laughed. "But what about your genin?" Takara pointed to Tenten who looked ready to retch. Gai looked over at her and furrowed his brow thinking.

"Tenten, tell Neji and Lee to meet me at the training grounds later for the tactical exercise, I have something to attend to." He said with his usual large grin and he headed down the street with Takara, looking very uncomfortable in the suit. Tenten shuddered, Gai sensei was on a date.

_End chap 5_

_AAGHHHH!!!! Tenten must be trumatised after this. Lol_

_**Tenten!? What about me? **_

_Why are you still here?_


	6. Chapter 6: Wannabe Teacher

_I can't leave you on a hanger like that I'm not that __cruel, I will be later though enjoy people, (right now I'm just posting what I got so far)_

**Wanna be Teacher**

"Your kidding?" asked Neji in disbelief.

"Ha! Gai-sensei is so cool!" Said Lee, Tenten ignored him.

"I'm not, apparently that woman use to be Gai's girlfriend when they where younger and now he's ditched us to take her out to get something to eat." Neji couldn't believe this.

"What kind of woman finds Gai-sensei attractive? That can't be true."

"What do you mean Gai-sensei is great its just he would rather focus on training than a girlfriend. I'll bet you 20 ryu that he does to have a girl friend!" said Lee

"You're on, Lee, easiest 20 ryu I'll ever make." He added to Tenten.

Tenten had told her team mates about the encounter earlier while they waited for Gai with the other Genin of their age group (and Shikamaru). The jonin had decided it would be a good idea to have their teams go against each other in a tactical exercise so they where all waiting. Gai's team of Tenten, Neji and Lee. Asuma's team of Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino. Kurena's team of Kiba and Shino (Hinata still in hospital) and Kakashi's team of Naruto. Sasuke was still missing and Sakura was now Tsunade's appetence so she wouldn't be here.

"So Hinata's well then?" asked Shino, Naruto nodded.

"I asked Sakura-chan about it before I came here. She said that Hinata's still sleeping but will be fine." Naruto told them all with a smile, it was the first in over a week. He seemed back to his old self, although he still wore the bracelet.

They all heard Gai before they saw him as he came down the path with Takara she was laughing lightly.

"You know for the life of me I can't remember why we broke up Gai, but you know me, there was no need to get dressed up for me. You never did like suits"

"You know me too well, very well then I'll leave you with my team, I'll return momentarily" with that he ran off and Takara chuckled and shook her head.

"Ahem" said Lee holding out his hand to Neji. He scowled and handed over the money. Having been left alone with the genin (and Shikamaru) Takara scanned them, they where standing in their 3 man teams. Takara did a double take at Shikamaru's team, it was a carbon copy of their parents team years ago, she smiled to herself.

"Your Nara's boy aren't you?" she addressed Shikamaru.

"Yeah…" he answered plainly with his usually lazy tone.

"Your father taught you the shadow techniques then?"

"Yeah…" he said again not sure where this was going.

"And it's your signature technique?" He nodded, how did she know so much about his father's moves?

"Show me then" she mentioned Ino to step forward and got Shikamaru to perform the Shadow Possession jutsu on Ino, he pulled it off and Takara smiled, he was just like his father.

"A shadow master in the making… that is an impressive move but if you are attacked you must release the jutsu, or if you try to attack your target they will mimic your moves."

"I know…" he said, Takara smiled his attitude was the same as well.

"You'll find this interesting then." She pulled off a quick hand sign "Pursuing Shadow Jutsu." Her shadow detached itself from her feet and shot across the ground and into Shikamaru's. His shadow stood ramrod straight and Shikamaru did the same.

"I can't move…" he gasped, Takara walked over to him, without a shadow.

"With this technique you can render your target completely immobile while you are able to move freely. A perfect capture technique and very hard to dodge, it also allows you to continue your attack without the target fighting back."

"Takara, your only back two hours and your already showing off." called Asuma appearing nearby.

"Well if I can't have my own team I may as well teach something to yours while I'm here, release" she said walking away from Shikamaru, her shadow streaked across the ground after her. Shikamaru stared after it, his dad had never told him about that one, maybe he didn't even know it himself.

"So where did you learn that one?" Asuma asked.

"Some where in shadow country from a clan of shadow masters." She answered, with a shrug "and that's not the only new move I've brought back with me."

"Thought so… where are the others?"

"dunno, Gai went to get changed and we still waiting for the others to show up. Hey can you remember why me and Gai broke up?"

"No, I can't." Asuma answered. "What is it Shikamaru?" Shikamaru had come up behind Takara while she had been talking to Asuma.

"I wanted to ask Takara-sensei to show me that technique again…" he said rubbing his head and looking away.

"Takara-sensei" she laughed "I like the sound of that. Yeah okay if your jonin doesn't mind." She looked back at Asuma and he shook his head. "Okay then we'll need a target." All of the others suddenly looked away.

"That's you Ino" said Asuma

"Aw no…" she started complaining.

"But it will have to wait until later here comes Kurena and Kakashi." Asuma pointed down the path.

"hey, Snake eyes." Called Kakashi, Takara scowled.

"I told you to stop calling me that. Don't make me pull 'it' out." Kakashi held up his hands.

"Whoa you still have that thing!?" Takara flipped open her wallet and pulled out a picture, of a young Kakashi with a shocked expression. Her fingers covered the bottom of the photo.

"Yes I still have it Kakashi, so don't call me that again or the fingers move." She threatened. Asuma laughed loudly,

"I can't believe you still have that picture of Kakashi without his mask."

"Is it true Kakashi sensei?" asked Naruto

"Yes and she's used it to black mail me ever since." Kakashi hung his head.

"You dared me to snatch your mask and I did, it was just luck that I had a camera with me that day." Said Takara innocently pushing the photo back into her wallet.

"And no matter how much we begged she never did let us see it, without covering the bottom half." Said Kurena almost huffing.

"I'm back, lets get started!" it was Gai. Takara's right eyebrow twitched wildly.

"Asuma, I've remembered." She said and covered her face with her hand. Gai was back in his usual spandex.

"Oh yeah, he started wearing those spandex jump suits."

"Ahem" Neji held out his hand and Lee handed him back his money with another 20.

"So what's going to happen now?" Takara asked.

"The point of this was for a team to capture something from the other. In this case it will be a coloured scarf from each team member." Kakashi explained to the genin (and Shikamaru) handing each team a different coloured scarf, Asuma's got red, Gai's got yellow and Kurena's got blue, Naruto was added to this team to finish the three man cell.

"If all three members of your team, lose their scarves then you are eliminated. But you can replace your own with one stolen from another team's member. You may use what ever tactics you feel necessary. You have ten minutes to decide on your strategy and to hide, the exercise will start at the sound of the air horn. Your ten minutes start now." The three teams ran in different directions, with each member having tied the scarf onto their belts, wrists or legs. After numerous fights the over all winner was Asuma's team because of Shikamaru's strategies. Takara watched the each fight closely analysing each genin's fighting style and preferences.

"I will admit you've done a good job with your students." Takara said to Asuma as they headed back towards the village "makes me a little jealous though." Kurena chuckled.

"well if your lucky maybe 5th will let you take on your own team."

"Maybe… why is the Nara boy following us?" Takara turned to see Shikamaru hovering down around a little down the path.

"Because you showed him something that interested him."

"Oh that shadow move, what was that blonde one called again?" Takara asked Asuma quietly.

"Ino…"

"Alright then I'll see you guys later tonight then." They had arranged to meet up with all the others from their old academy age group like old times. Takara turned back down the path and headed back towards the group of young ninja.

"Nara, Ino, come with me" she said walking past them. Shikamaru followed with out complaint for once Ino whined but followed anyway.

"Do you really think Shikamaru will pay anymore attention to her than you?" Kakashi asked Asuma.

"No, but let her try." Chuckled Asuma.

"Okay Nara, this should be similar to extending you shadow like in you shadow binding technique but with the acceptation that you will not focus on controlling your target but immobilising them."

She showed him the hand signs which he quickly mimed and mastered but, steering his shadow was problem and in most cases missed the target, in other words a very bored Ino.

"Quit complaining, I may have some thing to teach you as well so hold still for another while will you!" Takara snapped at her when she wouldn't stop whining.

"Like what?"

"Your skills are mostly mid range mind manipulation. I can teach you similar technique, just let me finish here ok?" Ino snorted and shouted doubtful.

"Okay then," said Takara sounding annoyed, she stared at Ino and with a simple hand sign, "Delving Gaze Jutsu!" Ino blacked out when she came around she was still standing in the same spot.

"What was that?" she asked.

"That was a mind reading jutsu, for example, you work in the flower shop, you have a rivalry with a girl called Sakura," Takara counted them off her fingers as she listed them. Ino's jaw dropped.

"you regret cutting your hair and you have a crash on S…"

"ok ok, I'll be good!!" shouted Ino over her last statement and turning bright red. Takara smiled as she looked from Ino to the confused Nara boy, he didn't know…

_What was that about? _Shikamaru thought to himself, _she tells everyone about Sasuke unless it's some one else now… nah._

Shikamaru was quickly able to master the simple hand signs but the jutsu itself was proving hard. After a while he lay on the grass to rest.

"Well I've taught you what I can it's up to you now to practise, your turn." Takara said returning her attention to Ino.

By the end of the afternoon both Ino and Shikamaru where walking away from the training grounds contemplating what the new jonin had taught them. Ino was busy practicing the hand signs slowly. She hadn't been able to perform the technique for Takara, but she informed her that like Shikamaru she just needed to practise it. Takara had dismissed both of them and headed off to get ready for the night out.

_End chap 6_

_It was the spandex that messed up Gai's love life… sigh…_

_Read and Review, please and Thank you_

_**Hey that rhymed**_

_Takara shut up…_


	7. Chapter 7: Second Generation Gai

_For those who don't get the (and Shikamaru) thing, he's a chuunin now so I can't group him together with the genin._

_Anyway next chapter!!_

Second Generation Gai

The next day Lee, Tenten and Neji where waiting outside lee's dojo, which had become their new training grounds, for Gai to appear.

"He's late" muttered Neji, he was standing with his arms crossed leaning against the dojo wall.

"It's not like Gai-sensei…" Tenten said, she was sitting on the roof watching the path, swinging her legs over the edge. Lee added nothing to the conversation because he was engrossed in doing push ups.

"1029…1030…1031…"

"There he is" said Tenten. Gai came down the path with an ice pack held to his head, with red eyes and 3am stubble of a beard. Takara was following close behind.

"Gai-sensei what's wrong" Lee asked, Takara looked from Gai to Lee and back again

"I thought they banned human cloning…" she muttered, Tenten giggled.

"I'm not my usual youthful self today," Takara rolled her eyes, remembering vividly why she broke up with Gai "so, Takara-sensei here has offered to oversee your training for the day. I'll leave you to it then…" he winced and headed back to bed.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Tenten as she followed Gai's slow progress back up the path.

"Put simply… a hangover." Said Takara with a shake of her head. "right then, I have a tai jutsu user, a weapon expert and a Hyuuga. What can we do with you?" she asked herself surveying her charges. Neji snorted,

"If Gai sensei is unable to train me I will return to Hiashi-sama" He said unfolding his arms and turning to leave.

"Neji! How could you insult our Sensei like that" scolded Tenten meaning Takara.

"No let him go, if he feels he will learn nothing from me then it will be true" Takara put a restraining hand on Tenten's shoulder. Neji walked away without any further conversation.

"Takara-sensei! What new moves will you be showing us?" an over-enthusiastic Lee shouted pulling off a number of a quick series of punches into empty air. Takara took a step back, noticeably disturbed by the fierce resemblance to Gai. Lee continued to jump around.

"Is he always like this?" Takara asked Tenten.

"Unfortunately." Answered Tenten looking ready to punch Lee, Takara whistled sharply and lee stopped mid kick.

"That always worked on Gai… okay then, lets see if I can get some new skills into those heads of yours. Attack me" she said adopting a fighting stance.

"What?" Tenten hesitated but Lee jumped right in with a series of rapid blows which Takara blocked. Tenten just watched as the two spared, somehow Lee managed to knock Takara on her back but she raised her legs and rolled back on to her shoulder and then on to her hands, then rotating herself on her hands and legs out stretched creating a attack, Lee jumped back just out of range, but one of Takara's legs touched the ground, she pushed off the ground and swung upright in a violent round-house kick nailing Lee in the gut.

"What was that?" asked Lee standing up quickly.

"Striking recovery, a Tai jutsu move which requires speed and flexibility…"

"Teach me, Please teach me!" Lee ran up to her, Takara wrinkled up her face and brought up a hand as if to ward off an attack, a little scared at the boy's enthusiasm.

"Okay! Okay! Just calm down!" she told him, and talked him through the actions of the move, then told him to go try while she saw to Tenten.

"If he's anything like Gai he'll keep at that till he learns it off, so we have plenty of time. Now you use weapons as your preferred offence, correct?" Takara asked Tenten, she nodded in reply.

"Then, I'll show you a weapon technique." Takara drew her katana, which had a dragon carved just above the hilt on the blade. She held the blade level with her shoulder and pointed it at a target some twenty feet away.

"This technique does not require any complicated hand signs, just concentration and a bit of chakra control. Observe"

Takara let go of the blade but it hovered still on level with the target. With that she did one hand sign, intertwining her fingers,

"Dancing Blades Jutsu!" The sword multiplied until there were nearly a dozen of them.

"In the low grade form of this attack, the extra blades are illusions, shadow clones if you will," She waved a hand through one of the swords, "But with higher grades they can become real clones and therefore do damage to an target, but the reason this is called dancing blades is the ability to control the blade after it leaves your hand, I'll show you with just one so you can see." With that all but one of the blades vanished. Takara pointed at the target and the sword flew for it, as she moved her index finger the sword followed that direction, until it embedded itself into the target. Tenten's eyes grew wide.

"Wow… could you show me the higher grade attack? please" Takara smiled at the young girl and fetched her sword from the target. On her way back to Tenten she placed a barrel in the path between the target and herself.

"Dancing Blade Jutsu!" several dozen replicas of her katana appeared and shot towards the target each swerved around the barrel and embedded itself into the target, the replicas disappeared but left noticeable damage to the target.

"As I said that was a higher grade of the jutsu, we'll start by getting you to steer one blade."

"Hai!" Tenten smiled widely and used her scroll to summon her own katana, Takara showed her the hand sign and talked her through gathering chakra in her hand and feeding it to her blade. Once that was done successfully she tied to explain how to steer the blade, after almost losing an arm in the process she decided to let Tenten try on her own for a while inside the dojo where stray weapons wouldn't harm anyone and went to check on Lee. He was progressing well but still didn't quite have it down. Takara smiled to herself, she was enjoying this. After another while she called a halt to the session, lee stayed to continue work on the new technique while Tenten welcomed the break and walked with Takara back to the village.

"Takara-sensei?" Tenten asked.

"Hmm?"

"Why does Asuma-sensei and Kakashi-sensei call you Snake Eyes?" Takara chuckled.

"Because of my kekkei genkai, my blood line trait. But mostly because they know it annoys me"

"Blood line trait?" Takara looked down at her, Tenten yelped and jumped back. Takara's eyes had changed, her pupils had elongated and there almost perfect lines except for a small round bugle in the center of it, the tips of the lines curved to one side almost looking like an S and her eyes where no longer grey but amber, as the nick name suggested she had snakes eyes. Takara blinked and they where gone. Tenten found Neji's pupil-less eyes creepy but that was just disturbing. Tenten thanked Takara for the training and headed off on her own. Takara smirked, her eyes had that effect on a lot of people. Ironically enough it was called Serpents Gaze.

"I wonder how my young friend is doing…" Takara headed off in the direction of the hospital. When she got there she found Kurena and the rest of team 8, and Naruto already there.

"Takara-sama" said Hinata quietly with a small smile as she entered.

"Hey Hinata, how you feeling?"

"Better, but Tsunade-sama wishes me to stay here until I am healed completely." She didn't sound too disappointed.

"Well hurry up and get better then, since you're in here we have to deal with Naruto" said Kiba pointing his thumb over his shoulder at Naruto.

"What's that meant to mean!?" shouted Naruto.

"Enough you two" said Shino grabbing Naruto by the arm to stop him diving after Kiba, Akamaru stuck out his little tongue from his perch inside Kiba's jacket. Hinata giggled,

"I'll try…"

"aww Hinata-chan…" moaned Naruto for her not taking his side, she giggled again and turned a little red because he called her chan. Not long after that Sakura appeared to chase them out

"Visiting time is over." The visitors left after saying bye to Hinata.

"I heard Gai landed you with his team this morning." Kurena said as they stepped outside the hospital

"Yeah, he over did it last night, still it was a bit of fun…"

"Takara-sensei!!" Lee came running up the street, being his usual hyper self. "I did it Takara-sensei!"

"Why didn't some one warn me about this kid?" Takara said rubbing her temple.

"We're used to it…" said Kurena.

"Allow me to show you, Takara-sensei!" he shouted again almost into her face.

"What are you taking about Lee?" asked Kiba, Shino scowled and left Lee to his ranting.

"Takara-sensei showed Tenten and myself some awesome new techniques, but I have mastered the one she taught me!" he claimed and clutched his fist in triumph.

"Okay Lee, show me…" said Takara tripping Lee so he fell on his back. Lee rolled back on his hands and performed the handstand spin before dipping one leg down and coming into the upright round house kick. Takara caught his leg easily and hoisted him off the ground so her hung upside down in her grasp.

"Good, but you don't have any force on the round house, it can be easily deflected, dodged or in the worst case caught like this leaving you open to a counter attack. I did mention speed was important to this didn't I?" she released his leg and he stood up straight.

"Then I will try harder Takara-sensei!" with that he ran off

"Lee…" he was already gone, "It's Gai all over again!" she said and ran her middle finger up the track of her scar, a habit she did when amazed or confused. This time she was a bit of both.

"I know… so you've been teaching some interesting moves to some of the kids. Asuma told me that Shikamaru and Ino have been practicing those jutsu's you showed them yesterday, and that is highly unusual for Shikamaru." Kurena said lightly.

"Huh? Your teaching everyone new moves old lady?" ask Naruto

"Less of the old kid… yes, I have been passing on a few techniques I've learned in my travels." Takara said with a shrug.

"Could you teach me something?" asked Naruto,

"Maybe, once you've learned to use the rasengan with out a shadow clone, besides I don't know any suited to your fighting style, you on the other hand…" she answered sharply before turning to look at Kiba. "I might know one you'd find interesting."

"Like what?" Kiba asked, if she peaked Shikamaru's interest it was worth a listen.

"A Technique called Beast Fusion, normally used by ninja with nin animals, a little like your double headed wolf jutsu but a little more… small scale, but still a powerful technique." Takara explained and stared to walk off, Kiba followed, this was sounding very cool. Kurena laughed and walked off in the other direction leaving her student to another teacher. For now.

"Are you interested?" she asked.

"Yeah, right Akamaru" the small dog barked in agreement.

"Very well then, come with me," she smiled looking at him from the side of her eye. When they arrived at the training grounds they found Shikamaru, lazing on the grass, Ino practicing the hand signs for Delving Gaze, Chouji munching on a packet of crisps and Tenten trying Dancing Blades with a tonfa (as suggested by Takara until she could do it correctly).

"Okay for this technique you need an animal counterpart, in your case the puppy, what was his name again?"

"Akamaru…"

"Right him. It will work on the same basic principle of your double headed wolf jutsu, which is quite impressive I might add," Kiba grinned to himself "however the difference is that you would retain a more human form and it's a little more chakra efficient. First I'll show you the hand signs" she did, slowly so he could follow and copy them, once that was done she stood a bit away from him.

"Now, this does increase your psychical strength and overall chakra level, but in truth the best thing this offers is intimidation." She said with an evil looking grin.

"intimidation?" asked Kiba, a few of the others who had been watched echoed this.

"Yes, now I'm about to show you this technique but you know that none of you will be in any danger." Kiba gulped, this was starting to worry him.

"Not that I'm an expert on this but… don't you need an animal to do this?" called Shikamaru from the sidelines.

"I'm getting to that…" Takara bit her right thumb and performed some rapid hand signs, and drew her thumb across the tattoo on her left bicep, "Branded Summoning Jutsu!" the panther on her arm suddenly seemed to come alive and run down her arm, leaping off her hand and growing several times until it was large enough for a grown human to ride on, its head came level with Takara's shoulders.

"Now _that_ was cool!" called Ino, as the panther circled around to stand beside Takara, she scratched between its ears.

"This is one of my nin creatures, Si, the other is So but only one is needed for this. Now again I'm going to warn you that this can be a frightening technique to witness." Kiba nodded and claimed he was ready.

"Very well then… Si" the panther ran a few paces away, turned and run towards Takara's back as if to tackle her, before the creature reached her Takara did the hand signs.

"Beast Fusion Jutsu" she shouted and seemed to glow, this glow hid Takara's body so only her outline was visible, the panther glowed as well. Si leapt forward and disappeared into Takara's back, her out line changed and the glow dispelled.

"Whoa!!" Kiba shouted and jumped back, Akamaru yelped and scrambled into Kiba's jacket, Ino screamed, Tenten got into a fighting stance and Shikamaru and Chouji somehow appeared up a tree.

_End chap 7_

_OHHHHH what's happened, Why did Ino scream, What has scared Kiba? and how did Chouji get his fat ass up a tree so fast? _

_These questions are answered in the next chapter, but not that we are on a resonable cliff hanger (and the fact i need to alter the next few chapters) theres going to be a slight delay in the posting of the next chapter._

_**You're so dramatic…**_

_How can you even speak? You're a creation of my mind?_

_**Not my fault you're psychotic…**_

_Err… yeah… Read and Review, Please and Thank you!!_

_**Again with the rhymes?**_

_Seriously leave me alone…_


	8. Chapter 8: Beast Fustion Technique

_Okay so I'm not gonna hold it back any longer, Takara is poking me to post it, as someone pointed out i can't leave too long or too short a period between posts so im gonna (try) to post at the start of each week (remember **try**!!)_

_**But what's really scary is she listens to me… I can really mess this kid up heehee, while I have a bit of fun you lot read the next chapter

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**Beast Fusion Technique**

Takara laughed, a strange growling hiss.

"I did warn you, and that was what I meant by 'intimidation'" she pointed up the tree at Shikamaru and Chouji. Takara's visible skin was covered in sleek black fur, her face was changed into a feline maw, a pair of cat like ears extended from the top of her head, on her fingers where claws and a tail protruded from the black of her trousers.

"This is the Beast Fusion jutsu, still interested Kiba?" she asked. Kiba took a minute to answer.

"Okay you know what lets just do this…" she joined her hands together and the glow started again, an outline of the panther jumped out from the front then the glow disappeared. Takara was back to normal.

"So, still interested?" she asked, her voice normal again.

"Hell yeah!!" shouted Kiba grinning widely. "But what happens if I do it wrong?" the smiled faded.

"Then the puppy…

"Akamaru…" he interrupted

"Yeah him, will just bounce off your back, it either works or doesn't, simple as that, there's no in between if you screw it up. So you will both be perfectly safe." She assured him. "I may be new at the sensei thing but I'm not about to put any of you in danger." Kiba smiled, he liked this jonin. Si the panther had wondered back over to stand behind Takara and rested its large head on her shoulder. That and she knew some kick ass techniques.

"Ok for now I want you to learn off those hand signs then I'll talk you through the rest of the technique. Okay?" she said as the panther returned to her arm as a tattoo.

"Hai!" he answered and started practicing then and there. Takara nodded and smiled at his eagerness.

"Takara-sensei, I think I got it right now…" Said Ino quietly

"oh… show me…" Takara very much doubted she could do it effectively yet but just to see.

"Delving Gaze Jutsu"

_Good but your not quite strong enough to continue on to the unconscious mind yet Ino, this way any one with good enough mental defenses could block your attempt and in the worst case reverse it._

"GAHHH" Ino released the jutsu and shuddered.

"You see, although you can read the thoughts on the surface, you must work harder, you weren't able to dig into my mind." Takara explained to Ino.

"Right, I'll train some more." Said Ino and wandered off and shuddered off the strange feeling she had after Takara had again gotten into her head.

"Whoa… so that's who you were talking about…" Chouji muttered to Shikamaru as the two climbed down from the tree. "I heard my dad talk about her last night, said she use to be close friends with our dads, kept calling her Snake eye's though…"

"Yeah don't ask her about that…" said Tenten with a visible shudder.

"Maybe she'll teach you something if you ask." said Shikamaru, jumping down from a branch.

"yeah, how cool would it be if I could learn that Branded Summoning Jutsu." said Chouji.

"But would you really want a tattoo?" Ino asked as she returned to the group. Chouji stopped to think about that for a minute.

"I suppose you have a point but what kind of move could she possibly have to teach me…?" he mumbled sadly.

"I know one" the four of them jumped as Takara's voice rang out above them, she had some how got up the tree without them noticing her and was crouched on a branch, she grinned at their faces.

"Akimichi Chouji… you father mentioned you last night…" she said jumping down from the branch to stand in front of him. "Are you looking for a new technique too?" she asked with a grin and a glance at Shikamaru, she had over heard the conversation.

"I… um… well if you would…" Chouji said not looking at Takara, he was shy. "If you have time…"

"What else do I have, I'm off duty for a few more days." She chuckled. "Now let's see, I didn't get to see much of your fighting style but I'm going to guess that you use the same techniques as your father, right?"

Chouji nodded.

"Ok then this will help you out then, a technique that's perfect for your build." She clapped him on the shoulder and led him into the open away from the tree. "This is more of a Tai jutsu than a ninjutsu move, it maneuvers all of your weight into one punch with out wasting chakra. Its called crushing blow, I was going to teach it to lee but he doesn't have the necessary body mass to pull it off, that and the kid creeps me out a bit." The move Takara taught him was basically a punch, but with a twist, the users full body weight is focused into the punch, perfect for some one of his size. Takara spent the rest of the day with her new students helping each to grasp their new techniques.

Meanwhile, back in the hospital Naruto was back in with Hinata, cheering her up a bit.

"Oh before I forget Hinata-chan, this is yours." He said and slipped the bracelet off his wrist and gave it to her again, and like the first time she blushed again and she hugged him again. She found it touching that he kept it, wore it even while she was gone.

"Thank you Naruto-kun…" she smiled and slipped it on to her left wrist.

"I missed you, you know, while you were away." He mumbled not really looking at her, and with a hint of a blush on his cheeks.

"Really Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah it's been quiet(er) without you and you're the only one who keeps me from doing something stupid." He joked with his big trademark grin. Naruto had visited Hinata each day since she got back. It made her feel a bit better since her father only visited once and even then it was to express his disappointment that she was injured so easily. Naruto's antics always made her smile and it seemed the two of them were getting closer with each visit and both seemed to notice it. Naruto had even ducked out of training sessions to visit and Hinata knew how much they meant to him. It was on the sixth day after she came back the two of them where talking when Hiashi entered the room. Naruto quickly pulled his hand from Hinata's and sat back from the bed before he came around the curtain, Hiashi scared him.

"You, leave" he said quietly but it still terrified him.

"See you later Hina…" he started to say but Hiashi interrupted

"Now!" he snapped and Naruto ran from the room. Hiashi stared out the window with his back to Hinata, she hung her head expecting a lecture on how she had embarrassed him and the clan but what he did say was much more devastating.

_End chap 8

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_**Short but sweet, but what did Hiashi say?**_

_Yeah well, we're getting there, so im not saying, now… LEAVE ME ALONE UR JUST IN MY HEAD!!!_

_**Keep telling yourself that, well **_

_**Read and Review, Please and Thank You**_

_And you poked fun at me for rhyming………_


	9. Chapter 9: Danger in the Night

_**Ohh an interesting title, I hope you've got something good in there**_

_Hey all my chapters are good! (Ish) just read and you'll see

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**Danger in the Night**

Takara was hiding from Gai, and his equally mad student Lee who wanted to show her his progress, when a messenger from Tsunade found her.

"Fifth wants to see you right away, Takara-sama." Said the ninja Takara jumped the height of herself expecting it to be Lee.

"Why?" she asked while her heart returned to its normal speed,

"I don't know but she said it was important."

"Hai" Takara, after checking the area was Lee-free, headed with the ninja to the Hokage's office.

"NANI!? Your sending me away!? WHY!?" Takara slammed her hands on the desk.

"Because you are not widely known as Konohua ninja and this is a classified mission. Too many of our high level Jonin are too well known out side the village for this, so I'm sorry but you are the only one we can send on this." said Tsunade over her clasped hands.

"Another long term mission…… I understand why but why now?" asked Takara.

"Because it's now, with Orochimaru on the move and with Sasuke missing we need as much information as we can gather and to get that we must send out eyes and ears but as I said most of our jonin best suited to this kind of undertaking are too well known to Orochimaru or even Sasuke could recognise them, you however have never come into contact with him nor does he know of you, and Orochimaru would find it very unlikely for you to be involved and even then he would never recognise you. That and you have extensive knowledge of other counties and I'm sure you have a number of connections." Said Tsunade.

"You do have a point but I haven't even been back in the village for a week…"

"Which is why you should leave as soon as possible, the longer you are here the more likely Orochimaru's spies could discover you."

"Alright I see where this is going, get your stuff and leave by the end of the day, got it… do you have any place in mind where I should start?"

"No, but he was last reported in Rice country but it is very unlikely that he is still there…" said Tsunade transferring Takara's data page from the Jonin registry and placing it in the special circumstances file, which contained information on village ninja on classified missions or like Jiraiya where on information gathering missions and current whereabouts unknown, a similar mission that Tsunade was now sending Takara.

"Royki Takara! Do you understand your mission?" asked Tsunade in an official tone.

"Hai!" she answered

"Then gather your equipment you will depart this afternoon."

"Hai… Hokage-sama…" she turned and left the office. Takara gathered her things, which wasn't hard since the majority of her stuff was still in her travel bag any way, she had been too lazy to unpack. Once that was done she headed around to say bye to her friends and informal students.

"But Takara-sensei you can't leave, I have not yet perfected Striking Recovery!!" Lee whined.

"Sorry kid but I gotta go, now let go of my leg…" Lee had grabbed her ankle in an attempt to stop her from leaving. "Little help?" she looked up at Tenten who was there as well, Tenten pried him off then with him reasonably restrained the remaining genin, (and Shikamaru) said farewell. After that she said her farewells to her old friends then finally headed to the hospital to say goodbye to Hinata, it seemed only right, she liked the kid. As she walked down the corridor she nearly got knocked over by Naruto making a very hasty exit. Shaking her head she continued onto the room but paused at the door as she heard voices from inside.

"Hinata…" Hiashi started, "You are my eldest child and heir to the Hyuuga main house." She hung her head he didn't even want to look at her. "but you do not act like it. You are weak… and unworthy of that title. That is why for the good of the main house I have decided that from this day you are no longer my child, you are expelled from the Hyuuga clan." It was now he turned to look at her with cold, uncaring eyes as though she was something unpleasant.

"Father!"

"You no longer have the right to call me that! You are nothing to the Hyuuga clan." With that statement he spun around and left the room into an empty corridor and closed the door with a snap. Hinata was shocked but when the reality of the situation sunk in she dropped her head into her hands and cried.

Takara had hidden around a corner when Hiashi made his exit, once he was gone she headed for the room and heard the sobs from within. Takara was filled with rage but what concerned her more was what would happen to Hinata now that she had been expelled from the Hyuuga clan.

"Hinata, you okay?" asked Sakura as she was doing her night rounds, she pulled Hinata from her thoughts.

"I'm … fine…" she answered weakly. She had been thinking about the coming night and the danger it would hold for her. The byakuggan was a skill confined only to the Hyuuga clan because of one reason, no member of the clan ever left it, alive anyway. The clans secrets where closely guarded by the clan and now that she had been expelled she was a danger to those secrets. She knew what was coming that night.

"Sakura-chan…" she said just before she left the room.

"What is it?"

"Could you do me a small favour?" Hinata asked quietly.

"If I can, why what is it?" Sakura came back into the room and sat on the bed.

"Could you give this to Naruto-kun tomorrow?" she said slipping off her bracelet and giving it to Sakura.

"Wha… why can't you do it yourself when he visits tomorrow?" Hinata bit back the urge to say,

_Because I won't be here tomorrow_

"Please Sakura-chan…" Sakura saw her pleading eyes and knew it was important.

"Yeah okay. I will…" Sakura pocketed the bracelet and left the room wondering what was wrong with Hinata. In the darkened room Hinata reached under the pillow behind her and pulled out a kunai knife before slipping out of the bed and creeping to the door, she wouldn't have much time. A shadow appeared on the wall and Hinata turned quickly to see an ANBU crouching in the window.

_End chap 9

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_OMG HINATA RUN!!! (skip)_

_(Due to severe bodily injury inflicted onto the writer whilst showing this chapter to Skip there may be a slight delay in the next chapter being posted)_

_Ow… …_


	10. Chapter 10: ANBU's Mission

_**What the hell!!?? Why did you end the last chapter there!? What happens?**_

_(LMD nurses several injures, i was gonna wait til monday to post this but Skip ...er... convinced me..) aw come on it was a good cliff hanger and skip already hurt me for __it so give over and put the katana away!!!_

_**Fine but do we find out what happens now?**_

_Yes…_

_(Thanks to__Erizibang__ who spotted the spelling mistake in Kurenai (he was the first to meation it... and im using Konohua cuz im lazy ok! stop mentioning it already)

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**ANBU's Mission**

It was just turning late afternoon when Takara after returning from the Hokage's office for the second time that day headed out the village gate with her large rucksack and katana.

"Any idea when you'll be back this time?" asked Kakashi as he snapped his book closed and stepped out of a shadow of a tree.

"I'll come back to the village every few months to give a report and I'll be sending weekly updates like Hokage-sama asked me to do. I'm not going to drop off the face of the earth again"

"Yeah try to keep in contact this time eh?" asked Kurenai who had appeared with Asuma beside her.

"Yeah sure" Takara smiled as Asuma handed her a small photo.

"We meant to give this to you earlier but 'someone' lost the camera after the night out" he said with a glare in Kakashi's direction, he shrugged in apology. The photo was a group shot of her old friends from the academy they where all spread across two booths of the pub they had went to on the first night she had come back. She was in the front with her arms draped around the necks of her team mates and the others stood behind or beside in their old three man cell teams from the old days, above the group was a banner with 'welcome back'.

"Thanks guys this is swe…oof" she was cut off as Gai appeared and wrapped her in a rib crushing bear hug.

"Let me go Gai" she puffed and gasped for breath. Gai's eyes welled and Takara raised an eye brow.

"I'll await you return with baited anticipation!" He said with his usual grin and tooth ping. Takara blinked several times to clear the flash shadow from her eyes.

"Yeah sure Gai… I gotta get on, I'll see you all when I see you then." She said waving and turned to head down the road.

"May your sprit of youth hasten your travels!" shouted Gai after her. Takara paused mid step and hung her head, then half turning she called back.

"Asuma! Your closer would you hit him for me?" Asuma gladly complied and smacked Gai over the back of the head. Takara laughed and continued on her way, the four jonin at the gate watched her go until she was nearly out of view then turned back into the village.

Although is was nice that her old friends came to see her off Takara's thoughts where on the conversation she just had with fifth, she had told Tsunade exactly what she had overheard in the hospital.

"Hiashi is not a loving father but I would find it very hard to believe that he would be cold enough to have his own daughter assassinated." Tsunade said and looked out the window over the village.

"I know but what if… this is the Hyuuga clan, they have a number of ANBU within the family, if they wanted it done they would have no shortage of choices who would never speak of it again… they wouldn't even have to go though any official channels. Tsunade-sama, I know you don't like to think that there are such people in the village but what if…?" Takara pleaded.

"You have a point Takara. You will leave the village as planned…"

"NANI!" she shouted back angrily.

"Let me finish… once you are out of visual range of the village double back through the forest. Once it gets dark come back into the village, make sure no one sees you, then take Hyuuga Hinata from the hospital before, not that I'm saying it will happen, the assassin arrives. Cover your tracks and wait for dawn then send me a message. Then I will send for Hinata to return as this **will **be only a precaution, and you will continue your mission."

"Thank you Tsunade-sama."

"Now get going you have to get far enough away from the village to safely double back… get out of here." Takara bowed and left the Hokage to stare out the window again in silence.

Tsunade wasn't happy about the idea but she seemed to understand that Hiashi was not a man to gamble with. Takara truly hoped she was wrong about this but she would still need to be fast. She stopped at a land mark cave not far from the village walls and stowed her pack, before taking off her long jacket under which was her own ANBU uniform, and donning her feline mask with a green strip across the right eye she made her way back to the village. It was just getting dark when Takara sneaked over the walls of the village and headed for the hospital, in the fading light she stalked the streets heading for the hospital, completely avoiding detection by people in the streets below, although there was a close call with the Nara boy. Crouching in the shadows under a houses balcony she watched the lights of Hinata's hospital room, unblinking, the sky got darker and shadows longer.

"Come on…" Takara was getting uncomfortable, it was getting too late, if she didn't hurry the scent blocking effect of her suit would run out, Takara made a move to run her middle finger along her scar again but the mask blocked it, but she still carried out her nervous act by stroking the green stripe on her mask. Finally Sakura's outline on the curtains left and the lights went out. Takara had been scanning the area and now sure it was clear jumped for the window. Hinata was about to sneak out the door when she arrived.

Hinata brandished the kunai knife in front of her even though her eyes where filled with fear. She knew she stood no chance against an ANBU but she wouldn't go with out a fight. The ANBU stepped in the window.

"Come on…" hissed the muffled voice from behind the mask.

"Huh?" Hinata was surprised as the ANBU spoke but didn't move. The ANBU pushed up the mask.

"Takara-sama!? You've come to kill me?" Hinata was nearly heart broken. Next thing she knew Takara was behind her covering her mouth with one hand and snatching the kunai with the other.

"Shh… No I'm not here to kill you. I came to get you out of here," she whispered into Hinata's ear. "just stay quiet, we need to get out of the village." Hinata didn't know weather she was telling the truth but what other option did she have. Takara crouched down and Hinata got on her back, Takara leant against the wall and glanced out the window. It was too dark to see any outlines.

"Serpents Gaze" she whispered and looked out the window again. With her blood line trait Takara could detect differences in temperature, just like a cobra, so the darkness no longer held a disadvantage for her. She scanned the roofs, alleys and shadows. Nothing, the coast was clear for now. Takara, launched herself from the second floor window and, keeping to the shadows, headed to the closest village wall. Jumping from shadow to shadow, with the stealth that only an ANBU could have, she constantly scanned the area. Takara knew there could be at least one Hyuuga ANBU heading for the hospital, she would have to be very careful. While pausing briefly she looked behind her. A red outline was in the window of the hospital room, maybe she had been right after all… Takara continued on quickly, she wouldn't be able to outrun the assassin's Byakugan for long. With careful timing Takara managed to get Hinata safely over the wall, running as fast as she could with a passenger on her back Takara headed to the small cave where she had hid the pack. While Hinata scanned around with her own Byakugan Takara dug out a spare ANBU uniform that smelt like grass. It had the same properties as Takara's suit, it blocked the wearers scent from leaking out, and it was perfect for covering your tracks. Hinata changed quickly, Takara took the pyjamas she had been wearing and burned then with a quick blast of chakra and scattered the ashes into a slowly trickling stream. "Ready?" Hinata nodded, Takara had put her mask back on and Hinata couldn't see her face, this made her a little uncomfortable.

"Branded Summoning Jutsu" Takara drew her thumbs down both tattoos and both jumped from her arms, Si and So the giant panthers appeared and lay down, Takara put the heavy pack on one and climbed onto the back of the other.

"Come on, hurry, we have to get away from here." Takara motioned for Hinata to come over and sat on the huge panther in front of Takara, who wrapped an arm around her midsection.

"Hold on tight" she whispered in her ear then to the panthers, "Si, So, run…" both panthers sprinted off into the night. By morning they where miles north of the village, several times Takara scanned the landscape behind her but found no sign of pursuers. When light finally did come they stopped and made a camp. Takara's panthers returned to her arms as tattoos.

"Takara-sama… why would you save me?" Hinata asked hugging her knees as she sat against a tree.

"Why wouldn't I?" said Takara, she was writing a message on a small scroll. When she finished she sealed the scroll and done a summoning jutsu, with a puff of smoke a small blue dragon appeared.

"Hey Takara!" said the little dragon in a strange high voice.

"Take this to Tsunade-sama in the hidden leaf" she said handing the small scroll to the dragon.

"What's in it for me?" the little dragon asked, with a playful smile.

"My most sincere thanks and this." She pulled a small treat out of her pocket.

"Consider it done!" said the little dragon and few off snatching the treat out of her hand as it flew past.

"That's a note letting the fifth know that you're okay." Takara told Hinata as she took of her cat ANBU mask. "We'll rest here while we wait for word back."

"Like it really matters. My own father tried to have me killed…" mumbled still hugging her legs tightly.

"We don't know that…"

"Then why else would you have come!?" Hinata shouted back on the verge of tears. Takara walked over and sat beside Hinata.

"We don't know anything yet, this may have just been a precaution, perhaps if your father finds out you're missing he will have a change of heart, he may love you more than you know. Just wait for the reply." Hinata smiled weakly, and rested her chin on her knees.

_End chap 10

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_**(Harbors murderous intent against Hiashi) OOHHHH he is SO dead when I get my hands on him!!**_

_Takara will you please stop waving that katana around!! _

_**I'm gonna kill him!!**_

_Yeah sure, whatever… Read and review, please and Thank you while I try and restrain Takara…._

_**I'm gonna kill him!!**_


	11. Chapter 11: New Apprentice

_I make a cameo in this one!!!_

_Yeah skip is my fan and critic so it seemed only right, anyway I've hidden Takara's katana so no characters (Hiashi) are in immediate danger so let__'s continue with the story_

_Aww why protect him?_

_That's for later, also just to point out that the Akatsuki don't exist in this fic

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**New Apprentice **

Sakura headed down the hospital corridor, it was morning and Tsunade had insisted that she do the morning rounds. She reached into her pocket to find a tie for her hair and found the bracelet from the night before. She remembered Hinata's request and wondered why she couldn't just give it to Naruto herself when he came to visit later, she smiled to herself thinking about those two, it seemed Naruto was finally returning the affection she had for him and they where a cute couple, Naruto had even worn the bracelet when he thought she was…. Sakura stopped dead in the corridor, last night she had overheard a conversation between Tsunade and Takara about Hinata, Takara had sounded worried, but Sakura hadn't heard the rest of the conversation. Suddenly worried she spun around and headed back down the hall to Hinata's room. Pulling the door open she gasped, the bed was messed up and empty there was a partial foot print on the window sill. Hinata was gone. Sakura headed straight to Tsunade. She found her in her office with a small dragon reading a scroll.

"Tsunade-sama, Hyuuga Hinata is missing!"

"What do you mean missing?" Tsunade turned and shoved the scroll into her pocket.

"She's not in the room and she's meant to be in the hospital for another few days, her jacket and bag are missing too." Tsunade scowled.

"Get me Inuzuka Tsume, her hounds would be able to track her quick enough"

"Kiba's mother? Hai right away Tsunade-sama." Sakura left to fetch the tracker ninja.

"Now we will see if Takara was right…" said Tsunade to no one.

"Any treats?" piped up the dragon.

Despite the efforts of Tsume's hounds, Hinata's scent could only be tracked to the village wall then it disappeared. There where no tracks, no scents, nothing. Tsunade sent for Hiashi to meet her in her office.

"Hiashi, I sorry to tell you but last night your daughter disappeared from the hospital, we can't find any trace of her"

"Humph… then lets hope she turns up somewhere. Either way she is no longer my concern" He said without a second thought and left soon after Tsunade told him where they had looked. Tsunade glared at the door after he left, Takara had been right, that man was as cold as arctic ice. Kurenai came to Tsunade not long after.

"Is it true that Hinata is gone?" Fifth nodded. "I had heard that she was expelled from the Hyuuga clan, it that true as well?" again she nodded. Kurenai's eye's widened, she was one of the few people who knew what that would mean for Hinata.

"Does that mean?" she started.

"We have no evidence to suggest it." Tsunade said sharply

"Her trail ends just out side the walls from there she just disappeared I don't care what clan you're from that can't be done by any genin!" Kurenai argued. Tsunade remained silent.

"Take Kiba and Shino, they are good at tracking, and join the search there is always the possibility that Hinata ran away from the village. Either find Hinata or find me evidence that she has been…"

"murdered…" Kurenai finished her sentence.

"I know how you feel Kurenai but without evidence you can't just accuse the head of a powerful clan of assassinating someone. Now go join the search and if your team or anyone else asks Hyuuga Hinata has run away, simple as that."

"Hai, Hokage-sama…"

"Go." Kurenai left the room seething. Tsunade finished the letter she was writing when Kurenai came in and gave it to the little blue dragon who was still hanging around.

"Take this to Takara"

"Work, work, work…" muttered the young dragon as it flew from the room.

Hinata waited like Takara told her, but hadn't moved from the curled up position under the tree, her gaze didn't lift from the ground in front of her. Takara watched the girl carefully and felt sorry for her, if she was right then Hinata would not be able to return to the village. Takara's thoughts where interrupted by the return and swift departure of the little blue dragon, in case he was sent off on another errant. Takara read the scroll to herself, Hiashi hadn't even bated an eye lid when he heard that Hinata was missing and a foot print on the sill meant Takara wasn't the only visitor to that room last night, Takara had been right after all.

"It's true isn't it?" asked Hinata pushing herself to her feet. Takara didn't know what to say and could only look away from the girl. This was all the answer Hinata needed.

"Then I have nothing…" Hinata's head feel limp and her shoulders shuttered with sobs.

"That's not true Hinata…" Takara said softly crouching down in front to her.

"Everything important to me is back in the village, and I can't show my face back there again because I'll risk getting killed, what do I have?" Takara placed a hand on Hinata's shoulders.

"You have me and I don't plan on leaving you any time soon." Takara dipped her head to see Hinata's face. The tears where flowing freely down her face now.

"Takara-sama!" Hinata threw her arms around her and buried he face into Takara's neck and sobbed. Takara just let her and returned the hug, she had just lost everything dear to her, but Takara had just made a promise. She wasn't going to leave Hinata.

"What will happen now, with you going missing as well it will make others suspect you." Hinata said after her sobs had subsided.

"There's no worry about that, everyone in the village thinks I left yesterday afternoon." Hinata lifted her head from Takara's tear soaked shoulder.

"Left? Where were you going?" said Hinata suddenly worried Takara would leave her.

"Tsunade-sama had sent me on a mission yesterday morning, when I came to say good bye to you I overheard your father, I couldn't let him do that to you so I came back and got you." Hinata smiled weakly. "This mission will take me all over the place again, I'll be away from the village for some time."

"What will I do?" asked Hinata pushing herself away from Takara. Takara stood up.

"You can come with me…" Hinata hesitated.

"You said it yourself you can't go back to the village but I know that an expelled clan member who was sent away on unfounded grounds can fight to regain their position in the clan. As I heard it your father believed you to be weak. If you can prove him wrong and win a fight with another Hyuuga then you can reclaim your place." Hinata looked up at Takara she seemed to know everything.

"But I know who otu-san would choose to fight me, it would be Neji, I can't win against him…" Takara scowled, her family had messed up her self confidence.

"Hinata, if you think like that then it will be true! All you need to do is work hard and you can better yourself." she scolded.

"Maybe… if you would train me, Takara-sama." Hinata said hopefully, Takara looked at the girl before her, this kid was stronger than she knew, but she had a point, she had no self confidence. Takara thought to herself a moment.

"Very well, Hinata you can travel with me and I'll train you as my apprentice." Hinata smiled widely and wrapped her arms around Takara.

"Thank you Takara-sama!"

"Just stop calling me sama you make me feel old…" she joked, gently pulling Hinata off of her, Hinata chuckled at the joke. "Now then, even though we are away from the village the name Hinata will still be dangerous and so will those eyes." Hinata watched as Takara dug through her back pack and finally pulled out a pair of dark glasses, much like Shino's.

"Here, wear these. Now what to call you?" Takara handed the glasses to her and crouched to think.

"… how about … Ruiizu?" Hinata shook her head.

"No, I've always liked the name Monoki…" she said shyly, Takara smiled.

"Monoki, it is then… now then let's see you can't walk around in an ANBU uniform for long so here, put this on." Takara pulled a long over coat out of her rucksack much like the one she was now wearing. Hinata put it on, it reached to her knees and closed around her nicely. Takara packed the remaining things back into the back pack and pulled it on, and handed Hinata her small overnight bag she'd taken from the hospital..

"We should get moving… we'll head north to Rice country."

"Hai, Takara-sensei." Hinata answered.

They walked through the woods until they got to the road then continued on north. Hinata looked back down the road, the mountain above Konohua could be seen even from here.

"You'll come back stronger than ever and reclaim your place in your clan. There's no doubt about that" Said Takara placing a hand on Hinata's shoulder. Hinata remained silent for a minute before turning and walking on ahead of Takara, but Takara had already seen the tears coming from behind the dark glasses.

_End chap 11

* * *

_

_Wondering about the cameo… __Ruiizu is Skips real name in Japanese_

_I'm in the story! I'm in the story!_

_**Have you seen my katana?**_

_It's a bit late now you've left the village_

_**DAMN!!**_

_Err… yeah… skip would you do the honors_

_READ AND REVIEW PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!!!!_

_(ow my ears...)_

**(is she always that loud?)**

_(yup...)_


	12. Chapter 12: Training Begins

_**Okay, Hinata's safe I'll forgive you for that… but she's so depressed... Make her cheer up!!**_

_Whatta mean forgive me? I'm they one who's in charge here!!_

_**Yeah sure, so what happens now?**_

_You'll see,_

_**Why do you sound evil when you say that?**

* * *

_

**Training Begins**

Two days after Hinata disappeared the whole village thought she had run away because of the shame of being expelled from the Hyuuga clan, a number of high ranking jonins had their suspicions about her real whereabouts but like Kurenai had no evidence to suggest foul play, but most where suspicious because she disappeared without a trace, Tsunade took a firm stance against rumors of this and no one talked about it. Kurenai was again in Tsunade's office demanding action on the disappearance of her student.

"…for all we know she is dead, which is the more likely option at this point, we've sent trackers into the woods and they have found nothing, only a jonin or higher could do that! It's just as plain as any thing to prove that Hinata didn't simply run away!" Tsunade had heard all of these arguments before and the vein on her forehead was growing larger and larger, Kurenai was beginning to get on her nerves.

"Kurenai!" Fifth slammed her hands on her desk as she stood up to shut Kurenai up. "If it'll make you shut up about this I'll show you something, shut the door!" Kurenai shut the door and returned to Tsunade's desk.

"Takara came to me concerned that there may be an assassination attempt on Hinata that night."

"You knew!" Tsunade held up her hand to silence Kurenai.

"Yes, I didn't want to believe that Hiashi would do such a thing, but Takara was persuasive."

"But Takara left before…" Again Fifth held up her hand.

"Yes as I told her, Takara came back to the village that night and took Hinata from the hospital, she left no trace of herself there, but Sakura found a foot print on the window sill and I have seen myself it was too large to have been made by either Hinata or Takara, so there was an attempt, that morning I received word form Takara that Hinata was safe and miles from the village and this morning I received this…" Tsunade pulled a scroll from the drawer and pushed it towards Kurenai. She picked it up and read it quickly.

"It seems Takara knows the village is no longer safe for Hinata to return, so she has taken Hinata along with her on her mission as her apprentice, so Hinata or Royki Monoki as she now goes by, is fine so please let it rest." Kurenai scanned the letter again, so it was true that Hinata was safe.

"Now I'll ask that you speak to no one about this. Got it?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama" Kurenai left the room with a small smile, although she hadn't seen Takara in so long she knew that she was trust worthy and responsible when the situation called for it, Hinata would be cared for.

* * *

"I'm going to assume that you can channel chakra to your feet, can you?" Takara asked as she walked with Hinata. 

"Yes Takara-sensei" Hinata answered. In the two day's since she had left the village with Takara they had traveled north. They had stopped in the first town on the way and Takara had bought Hinata a whole new set of clothes plus extras, a travel pack and a few sets of ninja equipment. Takara had gotten Hinata a number of new clothes, training clothes, travel clothes and something formal, just incase. She was now dressed in a pair of grass green 3 quarter length trousers held up with a strong leather belt like Takara's and a short sleeved black tee-shirt and a dark gray jacket, she had also gotten herself a green hat with 'faith' in red letters on he forehead and a number of dark glasses. As she chose the hat Hinata joked that Takara had said all she needed was faith, now she had it. As they left that village Hinata had a large rucksack like Takara's. Hinata soon learned that Takara was rather laid back and spoke informality to her new student and it seemed that Takara wouldn't pay any heed to Hinata as long as she spoke quietly so Hinata soon learned to speak up to make herself heard by Takara. Takara had done this to try and raise the girls self confidence and so far it was working, but once it wasn't just the two of them, like when they where in the town, her tone went straight back down again.

_Ok so work in progress…_ Takara thought to herself.

"What about your hands?" Takara asked.

"Channeling chakra into you hands is a key part of the gentle fist fighting style…" she replied.

"oh yeah… well how about both at the same time?"

"I don't think I can…" Hinata said quietly

"What?" Takara was keeping to her strategy of ignoring her when she spoke quietly.

"I said I don't think so…" she said a little louder with an embarrassed blush.

"You shouldn't be embarrassed by your short comings, if you can recognize what you can and can't do you can focus on improving yourself." Takara said stopping and setting down her pack, Hinata stopped as well and let her pack fall as well, it was heavier than it looked, Takara had said that was a good thing and help her build stamina in the long run, what she didn't tell Hinata was that she had slipped a couple of weights into the bottom, it would be like Lee's leg weights and it was only a couple of pounds, to start with. A pond was next to the road and Takara walked onto it beckoning Hinata to follow. She hesitated at the edge of the water.

"Monoki…" still getting used to her assumed name meant Hinata didn't respond right away. Until Takara whistled sharply, another thing she was prone to do. "Focusing charka to the sole of your feet will allow to be able to walk on the thin membrane on top of the water, you said you could do it so show me." Hinata did and walked out to Takara on the water.

"Good, now then, focusing chakra will have the same effect in your hand," Takara crouched placed both hands on the water and preformed a hand stand on the water, before standing again. "Can you do it?"

Hinata said she'd try and crouched down, on her first attempt her hands just passed through the surface of the water. She tried again but while she was able to get the right amount of chakra flowing through her hands her feet started to sink in. The chakra barrier on her feet disappeared and Hinata fell in.

"AGHH!" the water was cold, Takara laughed as she pulled in Hinata back to the surface.

"What's the point of this again?" asked Hinata standing up and shaking water off herself. Usually if she asked questions she got straight answers from Takara.

"This exercise will help you to focus charka at multiple body parts at once which will give you an advantage in battle, Neji has already mastered this and if you are to beat him you will have to learn it as well. You see while you are focusing chakra in your hands you must also focus on you feet to stop from falling in, again, forming chakra in both your hands and feet at different times are easy enough but trying to focus it into body parts which are far apart simultaneously requires a little more skill."

"So this is a charka control exercise?"

"Exactly, and once you are able to do that, you can do this." Takara did a string of back flips across the water both her hands and feet stayed on the surface, Takara walked back over to Hinata.

"Now let's try it again, shall we?" Hinata tried to carry out the hand stand but most times she had to stop before she fell in the water again. It took some doing but eventually Hinata was able to place weight on both hands and feet on the surface of the water, with a grin she pushed off with her feet and did the handstand.

"Takara-sensei" she called,

"Good!" called Takara, who had returned to the shore to make a meal while Hinata trained. "Now come on we'll move on to the next phase after you eat." Hinata smiled and getting back onto her feet walked over the surface of the water to Takara. Another thing Hinata learned about Takara was that although she was a great shinobi, she was a lousy cook. The meals where basic and tasteless but after getting a lecture on how taste doesn't matter over nutritional value Hinata learned not to complain, that and Takara clipped her on the back of the head and said if she complained again she'd be cooking her own meals.

"Now…" started Takara through a mouth full of rice, "… that you can do that, we are gonna work on getting you to do it faster, the quicker you can focus chakra the better in a battle situation." Hinata nodded as she shoveled the food into her mouth.

"Now while you do that gimme your belt and forehead protector." Takara told her

"Huh? Why?" Hinata asked

"Don't argue, just gimme you'll see later."

"okay…" Hinata took the forehead protector from its usual place around her neck and gave it to Takara and her belt, which was more for show and clipping the equipment pouch to than holding up her trousers. After that Hinata went back onto the pond to try and do the handstand quicker with out getting soaked again. Takara picked away the material from the protector leaving only the metal bit, then picked off the buckle of the belt, with a bit of work she fused the protector on to the belt so now it was the clasp holding it together.

"What was the point of that?" asked Hinata later that day taking the belt from Takara, she had managed to do the handstand perfectly now but still needed a bit of time to focus chakra.

"In some places we will have to hide the fact that we are from Konohua and in others it will work to our advantage to let others know we are shinobi, watch…" Takara pointed at her own buckle, she slipped a finger under the protector at one side and pulled, the protector clicked out and flipped around so the Konohua symbol now faced into her, hidden, replacing it was a craved panther on the other side of the metal. She pulled at the other side and it flipped around again showing the Konohua symbol.

"Yours will flip around the same way I just haven't craved anything there yet. So instead of having to pull it of your neck in a hurry all we need to do is pull on the buckle. A little less obvious" She sat back down again. Hinata pulled at the buckle and it flipped around but the back was plain like Takara had said.

"Nice…"

_End chap 12

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_

_**Chakra control exercises? Come on can't we do something a little more interesting?**_

_These are important for later… and you don't even know what she's like yet so just be quiet!_

_**Meh… **_

_You'll teach her more so relax will you!!_

_**Ok fine…**_

_Anyway, what you think of Hinata's new look?_

_Read and Review please and thank you!!_


	13. Chapter 13: Targeted Village

_Okay here be that next one!! Say yay!_

_**Okay… yay… so lets see Hinata's outta the village and I'm teaching her new moves what could happen?**_

_Well some thing better or it wouldn'__t be a good fic now would it?_

_**Ur up to something**_

_no shit..._

* * *

**Targeted Village**

They stayed the night beside the pond and moved on in the morning, each night they would stop and do a little training, normally tai jutsu but if near a body of water they continued the handstand training, she was getting faster at gathering chakra at points in her body and the time it took for her to build up enough charka to perform her Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms technique was greatly reduced. When Hinata first used that technique she bounced a kunai back at Takara and scared the crap out of her.

"WHOA!!" she just managed to dodge it and almost got a matching scar across her other eye. Hinata laughed at Takara's wide eyes as she sat on her backside looking from the kunai embedded into a tree and Hinata.

"Okay… that was…" Takara was lost for words, she'd never seen a defense that could reflect attacks with such accuracy. The heavenly spin of the Hyuuga clan could defect almost any attack but Hinata's variation not only stopped attacks, it reversed projectiles. Takara grinned widely.

"You see, that was not something a weakling could develop." She told Hinata while pushing herself off the ground. Hinata smiled shyly as Takara beamed at her.

"Tell you what, there's a town just down the road, what do you say to getting a proper meal and a room to sleep in." Takara asked dusting herself off.

"Sounds good!" answered Hinata fetching the kunai from the tree, she was happier at the prospect of getting a proper meal for a change, instead of Takara's crap cooking. As they walked down the road Takara flicked her belt buckle around to hide the leaf symbol and told Hinata to do the same. They where deep into Rice Country now, it was no place for two Konohua ninjas. The town was small and seemingly quiet, Takara's eyes, now hidden behind dark glasses, scanned the streets, a number of the people where armed and watched their progress down the street. This made Hinata a little uncomfortable.

"In here…" Takara put a hand on Hinata's shoulder and guided her to a guest house, which by the looks of it wasn't getting much business. Once inside Takara headed to the sour looking old woman behind the counter.

"Any rooms for the night?" the woman eyed Takara up with a suspicious scowl

"That would depend, are you here to start trouble?"

"No, we just passing through…" the woman glanced around Takara to Hinata who was standing behind.

"You're armed." The woman said.

"Who isn't these days, the roads aren't safe anymore." Takara said with a head shake and a convincing sigh.

"Two rooms or one?" the woman continued

"Just the one for me and my little sister would be fine."

"We require payment up front." The woman said bluntly, her distrust in strangers was evident.

"Seems fair enough" While Takara sorted out the payment Hinata looked around the room. There was a few men in the corner, each cradling a drink and they stared back with dark eyes. Hinata was a little worried at this stage, but Takara seemed to know what she was doing. When the woman at the desk asked about them she claimed that she was an artisan heading home after a job in a city and that Hinata was her little sister who always traveled with her. She gave no indication that she was any thing else. The woman behind the counter handed her a key and told them where to go. Takara thanked the woman with a friendly smile and called Hinata to follow her. Once inside the room Takara's smiled faded.

"Something is going on here" she said with a furrowed brow

"How can you be sure?"

"I'm not … yet, leave your stuff and lets go get some thing to eat, I saw a tea house down the street." They left the guest house and headed down the street, again they where watched.

"I don't like the way everyone is looking at us…" whispered Hinata once they seated themselves in the tea house and ordered something to eat.

"I know, but don't look so jumpy, they're wary of strangers, normally a town would have a good reason for this. If they're armed something violent happened, or they have been threatened. How many can you see watching us?"

Hinata used her Byakugan and scanned the area, inside the tea house five, outside another four, nine in total and all where armed.

"Nine, the two at the bar, man in the hat in the corner and the two in the booth another four outside." Hinata whispered back trying not to move her lips. Takara pushed her dark glasses up her nose to hide her eyes, Hinata could see the grey swirl and turn to amber, she was using her serpents gaze. With a quick movement of her tongue, which could have been mistaken for licking of the lips, she tasted fear in the air. The heart rates of the five inside were fast, and a build up of heat in their hands meant sweaty palms, meaning they were nervous. Their food was brought out after a short wait, the portions were small, which also peaked Takara's interest, they ate with little further conversation and soon left the tea house and returned to the guest house, yet again their progress was watched. Back in their room Takara, after checking the hall, closed the door.

"This town was raided, and recently by the looks of it."

"How can you tell?"

"There are damaged buildings on the edge of town, there was barely any food to spare at the tea house and the fact that everyone is armed and as jumpy as a mouse in a snake pit. I think we may have found our lead."

"Lead?" Hinata asked.

"Yes, if this town is raided on a regular basis, which it looks like it has, then there may just be a camp nearby, maybe in the hills to the west, since the only buildings to be damaged are to the west."

"How did you work that out?" asked Hinata slightly amazed

"Keen observation, trust me when you travel as much as I do you pick it up quickly. But this is only a theory, I'll see soon enough if it is true though." Said Takara picking up her wallet and long over coat.

"How?"

"You'd be surprised how loose a man's tongue can become with a few drinks and a pretty face." She cringed to herself, it was not something she liked to do. "Stay here and don't open the door to anyone." Takara had said the last bit with force.

"Hai." It was getting dark outside, Takara left the room and Hinata locked the door behind her, she had taken the key anyway. Looking out the window she could see Takara's blue coat floating down the street towards a bar, she had left her katana behind and Hinata couldn't help but be a little worried about her teacher but then again Takara could look after herself. Hinata decided she may as well take this chance and take a look at Takara's katana.

* * *

_its short i know... but after this they're gettin longer i promise_

**What the hel!? What are you gonna make me do!?**

_Not saying…_

_**Tell me!!**_

_No… Read and review please and thank yo GAGAHAAAHH is being throttled_

_**TELL ME!!!**_


	14. Chapter 14: Takara the Honey Trap

_**WHERE ARE U!! WAIT TIL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU (stomps off screen)**_

_(head pops up from behind a bush, hand prints __visible on neck) is she gone?_

_Right okay Takara found out what was going on and she didn't like it… But you will!_

_**THERE U ARE!!!**_

* * *

**Takara The Honey Trap**

Takara headed towards the bar. She hated doing this sort of thing but it was effective in most cases. Before she stepped into the bar she pulled the clasp from her hair and let it fall around her face and gave it a ruffle, she let her jacket lay open, unbuttoned the top three buttons on her shirt and mentally kicked herself. After making sure her kunai where well hidden but within reach, she kicked herself again and entered the bar. It was as she guessed dark gloomy with a number of people seated around at various tables, conversation quieted as she entered. Without pausing she headed to a table in the corner sitting with her right side facing the wall to hide the scar, it didn't take long for a man to offer to buy her a drink.

"Why not?" she answered with a forced smile, eyebrow twitching.

The man grinned to himself and fetched a few bottles of sake from the bar. For the next hour Takara found it hard to keep forcing the smile while the man got drunker and continued to talk about himself. When he started missing his mouth and using two hands to try guide the cup she took her chance.

"So tell me, what has a strong (kick) handsome (kick) guy like you carrying weapons around the town?" (kick, kick, kick, kick)

"wee 'ree no realllly meaaannt to sss sss spek bout itsss" the man slurred.

"Aw but you can tell me… can't you?" (kick, kick, kick). The man smiled drunkenly.

"Course I cann, but you not allowed to telll no oneee." He put his finger on his lips in a sshing gesture, or at least tried, he only succeed to poke himself in the nose. The man muttered on most of what he said was gibberish mutterings of a drunk man, but he did say a few things of interest. For one thing he confirmed her suspicions of repeated raiding parties coming from the western hills and that the townsfolk where not happy with strangers, the last strangers that had stayed in the town had been murdered and robbed not long after leaving the village. This got Takara thinking that perhaps who ever was in the hills didn't want word of their presence spreading. She'd gotten all she could use from the man, now to get away.

"So, does you have a bed to stay in tonight?" the man asked reaching to grab her hand. Takara cringed,

"Okay, nice time over…" she muttered she drew her hand away angrily and looked around the bar, it was late and the bar was more or less empty, no one was looking their way. The man slumped over and grabbed her, Takara gritted her teeth and flashed her snake like eyes at the man she grabbed the back of his neck and slammed his head on to the table and knocked him cold.

"No touching!" she hissed quietly.

"Drunken fool" someone muttered as Takara picked up her coat and left. Once out side she shuddered,

"I feel so dirty" she whined. "I hate doing that! I need a shower."

Takara headed back to the guest house. Hinata was asleep by the time Takara returned to the room. Quietly Takara got changed into a stealth suit, thought twice about lifting her katana (which for some reason was on the other side of the room from where she left it) setting it back down she donned a darkened ANBU mask she crept out the window and to woods in the west. If it was just bandits then she would clear them out, but if it was ninja, then that was another matter.

With the help of her Serpents Gaze she soon found a worn path in the darkened woods, she followed it from above in the trees. Several times she had to avoid traps.

_This isn't just some bandits… _she thought to herself looking at the almost invisible wire stretched across the path, it was attached to an explosive note. The third with in a hundred yards, she was getting close. Carefully she jumped down from the trees and continued on her hands and knees, progress was slow as the amount of traps increased and she had to disarm a few. There was a number of heat sources up ahead, a fire and a few humans. Takara crept up closer, it was four men, ninjas, they where standing guard in front of a sunken gate leading inside an underground base. The four men where wearing sound village protectors.

One man was scanning the bushes, went he saw two pinpricks of amber light,

"Huh?" he squinted into the darkness.

"What is it?" asked another, the first ninja didn't respond, "Hey," still no answer he second guy nudged his arm, the first guy shook his head as if coming out of a day dream.

"What is it?" repeated the second guy

"Thought I saw something…" he looked back into the bushes the lights where gone.

Takara running from branch to branch, she had got what she needed a made a hasty exit. With the Delving Daze jutsu she could at least say for certainty that Orochimaru wasn't there, he was some weeks ago while he waited for Sasuke but moved on before the genin appeared. It was just a base of sound ninja that he had abandoned but they still had their loyalty to him, they where a leaderless bunch of thugs that didn't know where their 'master' had gone. But had made Takara leave so quickly was that she uncovered in the ninjas mind, a plan to 'remove' the strangers was underway.

Two sound ninja's where dispatched to 'deal' with the strangers. One was supposed to go to the guest house the other was sent to the bar she herself had been to not half an hour ago, they knew she was there. Takara was nearly at the town when a kunai hit the branch next to her feet. Takara stopped and back flipped into a crouching position in a clump of bushes. _Where did that come from? _She saw it, a heat source, it was a ninja, and the way his head was moving about he didn't know where she went and he couldn't see in the dark. Takara aimed a kunai at the sweeping head and got ready to throw. _Wait! Two ninja where dispatched! _She swept the entire area no other heat sources big enough to be human, a couple of squirrels and a few small creatures, foxes maybe, but no other humans. _Dammit!_ She crept along the branch, it was painfully obvious that this guy couldn't see a damn thing after a few minutes she was behind him, the fool didn't even move from where he threw the kunai. Takara grabbed his shoulders and spun him around grabbed his wrists in one hand and pinned it against his chest while pushing him against the tree, his legs where trapped underneath him and with her free hand held a kunai to his neck.

"Where's the other" she hissed, her serpent like eyes flashed in the dark, the man whimpered, she pushed the knife closer. "Where?"

"He went to the guest house to kill the small one!" he cried.

"What!" Takara flicked her eyes towards the lights of the town, the ninja took his chance he pushed out forcing Takara back and slipped a kunai out of his sleeve and swiped for her neck, she jerked her head back at an impossible angle.

"What the…!?" Takara's kunai cut off the rest of the sentence by slicing his throat. Takara was gone before the body hit the ground.

Hinata woke in the night, Takara wasn't in the bed across the room, Hinata yawned and was about to go back to sleep, but paused hovering her head over the pillow, something was wrong the window open, she hadn't opened it. Something caught the moonlight and flashed. The kunai struck the pillow, pinning it to the bed, luckily Hinata had rolled from the bed in time but the knife had grazed her hair, crouched on the ground and using Byakugan she saw one guy crouched on the ceiling of the room wielding another kunai. Hinata grabbed the nearest weapon, Takara's katana, it was heavier than it looked but Hinata was able to pull it from the black sheath and hold it in front of herself, deflecting the second kunai knife. The ninja dropped from the roof and landed lightly on the ground before lunging for her with a third kunai. Adrenaline took over Hinata swung the katana is a deadly upward strike, slicing the ninjas attacking arm, he grunted and dropped the kunai grasping his wrist with his other hand. While he was distracted Hinata slammed her open palm into his chest. The man staggered back, that was a pretty basic attack but for a Gentle Fist user it was a fatal attack, it used a lot of chakra though. The man collapsed and fell face down on the floor, blood pooled from his wrist. Hinata kicked him over, holding the katana in front of her, just in case.

"One of Hiashi's assassins?" was her first thought, but no this man was wearing a sound village symbol. While she was crouching over the body she sensed another presence behind her, turning swiftly she threw a kunai taken from the dead mans pouch. The other person at the window ducked the kunai and rolled into the room.

"Whoa, Wait!" the person while rolling to their feet and waving their hands. Hinata still held the katana and jumped forward, the figure ducked avoiding the horizontal strike. The heavy weapon over balanced Hinata's usual perfect form, the figure grabbed her wrist and prevented her from falling.

"I told you not to play with my katana…" said the figure quietly.

"Takara-sensei?" Hinata was relieved as Takara took off the black mask.

"You okay?" she asked scanned her for any injury and sounding concerned.

"Yeah… I… I'm fine. Who is he?" She asked letting Takara take the katana from her.

"A sound ninja, they have a base up the hill, it seems they have this village under a close watch. They don't like strangers, the whole village is in on this, it's not safe for us here. Get dressed, we gotta get outta here." Takara threw spare clothes into the backpacks while Hinata got dressed.

"What did you find out?" Hinata asked as she pulled a tee-shirt over her head

"That Orochimaru is no longer in Rice Country, hurry" Takara threw Hinata her beni hat, she caught it and pulled it over her bed messed hair. Both of them left through the window and sprinted from the sound controlled village. They continued to travel with out stopping for two days, continuously changing direction and at a number of places dropped mustard bombs. They where like smoke bombs but they coated the area with a layer of mustard powder and fine ground pepper this layer would confuse and disorient the sense of smell of any one trying to track them, sending the pursuer into sneezing fits and removing their sense of smell for a day or so.

"Ok… I think we can slow down now…" puffed Takara coming to a stop on a tree branch, Hinata landed next to her and sank to her knees.

"Finally…" she puffed. "So you're mission is to find Orochimaru and Sasuke?"

"Not entirely, its to gather any useful information and this tends to be useful, we can inform Tsunade that theirs no need to send ANBU search teams into Rice." answered Takara as she sank down onto the branch, beside Hinata.

"Did you learn any thing else?"

"Yeah … you can't use a katana, we'll have to fix that" Hinata pouted

"It's heavy, what did you expect you never let me train with it."

"That's not the point, I don't think you suited to use a katana, there too large for some one with your natural speed, something smaller and lighter would do for you." Takara looked out over the valley which their perch in the tree gave them a good view over the country side and the rising sun added a certain beauty to the scene. Hinata followed her gaze but when she saw nothing assumed Takara was just thinking.

"So… What happens now?" asked Hinata breaking the early morning silence.

"hmmm?" Takara came out of her thoughts "Well tracking Orochimaru is out of the question at this point. He's been gone far too long, _and I can't put you in that kind of situation, not just yet, _so there's no chance of us finding him. So we're just gonna do a wander."

"A what?" Takara had a large vocabulary of slang and phases and Hinata didn't even try to pretend she knew what her sensei was taking about.

"In other words, we are going to go about keeping our eyes and ears open for any thing of interest and while we're at it lets see what we can do with your skills." Takara swept her eyes around to look at Hinata directly.

"You mean training? Proper training?" asked Hinata.

"Yes, non-stop, Monoki, are you up to it?" Takara asked in all seriousness.

"HAI" Answered Hinata, Takara cracked a small smile

"You'd better be… Starting tomorrow the training will begin. I'll start with one of your weakest skills tai-jutsu, once you get competent with that we can move on to greater and more complicated things." Hinata nodded with a look of pure determination on her face. "As for today consider this you last day off for a while" Takara smirked at the tiny twitch of Hinata's eyebrow at those words. Takara slipped of the branch and landed on the ground below.

"Come on, lets find somewhere to sleep" she called back up to Hinata.

"Right" she called back and jumped down next to Takara, her legs gave out and she fell on her butt. "I guess I'm a little tired…" she tried to joke. Takara raised an eyebrow at Hinata on the ground, she had to remind herself that the kid wasn't up to so much travelling so quickly. Endurance, another quality she would instil into her young student. Takara offered her hand to Hinata and pulled her off the ground and taking her rucksack from her back. It was heavy but still much lighter than her own and they weren't going far. About ten minutes later they had found a good place to rest, Hinata was filling their canteens from a stream while Takara was writing down what she had found out into a small scroll. Hinata returned just as she sealed the scroll, and performed a summoning jutsu and the same little blue dragon appeared.

"Hey Takara!" he piped as the smoke cleared.

"Hey Ryuu, fancy doing a little job for me" Takara said it wasn't a question

"That would depend… what's in it for me?" the dragon said slyly.

"Ryuu, we're in the middle of nowhere and I'm running low on treats so you'll get something on delivery."

"We?" asked the little dragon and looked around to Hinata who was a little wary of the cat sized dragon.

"Oh and who are you?" he asked blinking his amber eyes.

"Royki Monoki…" answered Hinata using her assumed name. "Who are you?" The dragon bared his little fangs in a grin and drew himself up on his hind legs.

"I am the great and powerful Ryuu!!" he declared letting loose a puff of smoke.

"No, you're the kid of Gusomai who can't even breathe fire yet…" said Takara flatly and poked the dragon on the head, and suddenly the dragon was no longer scary.

"Oi! You could at least let me form a good impression on your… wait who is she any way? Your kid?" Takara almost choked, Hinata, who was giggling at the dragon, burst into full blown fits of laughter.

"NO!" Takara glared at the little dragon. "she's my apprentice so be nice! Here just take this to Tsunade before I yank your whiskers."

"Okay okay. Relax!" said the little dragon clutching his long moustache like whiskers, she had carried out that threat before. She handed the small scroll to the dragon and he flew off.

"And you can shut up and all…" She muttered to Hinata. Hinata's laughs subsided, eventually.

"Is he a branded summon too?" she asked.

"No he's a proper summoned creature."

"Like Naurto-kun's toads and Kakashi-sensei's hounds?" Hinata asked

"Exactly…" said Takara slightly surprised that she caught on to this very quickly.

"Could you teach me how to do that?" Hinata chanced

"I really don't think you're up to it now… but I promise that when I fell you're ready I will teach it to you." She added quickly when Hinata dropped her gaze to the ground. Takara knew the kids chakra control was near enough spot on but she didn't have a lot of chakra on the whole. She would have to work on that as well. Hinata smiled at Takara and she smiled back.

"Now get some sleep it all starts tomorrow."

They spent the rest of the day and the following night resting in that spot and the next day they moved out and Hinata's training began in earnest.

* * *

_There see you got to hurt someone! PUT ME DOWN!! I don't wanna do anything like the bar bit again it made me gag just writing it_

_**(Mutters angrily) FINE!! But ur lucky I got to take out my rage on a sound ninja!**_

_ER… yeah sure, also a Beni hat is just a material cap that covers the crown of the head, forehead and top of the ears, and top of the neck._

_**Read and review, please and Thank you!!**_

_(on a side note I recently posted a one shot cuz it was an idea I had that didn't fit with the story, take a look and tell me what ya think.)_


	15. Chapter 15: Those Left Behind

_This chapter was supposed to come before the sound village but I was on a roll writing it and this kinda fits better in to the time scale_

_**This has a time scale?**_

_Oh shut up…_

* * *

**Those Left Behind**

It was two weeks since Hinata disappeared and the search was called off, they had made no progress on finding any traces and Kurenai had made it known that she had spoke to Hinata on several occasions about stealth tactics, perhaps she was paying more attention to her than she had thought. Kiba, Shino, Naruto, Shikamaru, Tenten, Ino, Chouji and Sakura refused to give up right away but eventually Kurenai snapped at them.

"Hinata knows enough to make herself disappear and she done a good job of it, she doesn't want to be found so leave it be!"

They grudgingly agreed to let it be, but Shino had heard rumours although he didn't share those with anyone he had his suspicions. Every time someone mentioned Hinata around Neji he would avoid the conversation and look away, he knew something but everyone thought it was just because he was meant to make sure things like this never happened. Over all it was old news people (except for what remained of the Konohua eleven, who still keep ears and eyes open for any sign of her) stopped wondering where Hinata had run off to.

Worst effected was Naruto, Sakura had kept her promise when he came to visit on that day and the way his face fell when she stopped from him entering the room and handed him the bracelet, it almost broke her heart. He just stared at the bracelet in his hand without saying anything.

"Naruto? Are you okay?" Sakura asked already knowing the answer was no. He looked at her with his big eyes.

"What happened?" Sakura told him about Hiashi disowning Hinata from the Hyuuga clan and that she had run away from the shame of it. Naruto had immediately ran off to join the search to try and find her. When the search turned up empty he had slumped back into the depression he was in back when they thought she was dead and on several occasions each of the Konohua eleven (or at least what remained of it) spotted him around the town staring at the bracelet in hand. After the first two weeks he cheered up a bit, he was convinced that she would come back or at least send a letter when she could and he held on to that hope. He claimed he had a feeling she was okay and everyone wanted to believe it and they did.

* * *

Tsunade was in her office, sneaking quick sips of sake while no one was around. BANG. Tsunade dropped her cup at the loud noise at the window. Looking around there was a large smudge on the window pane. She opened the window and looked out just below was a dazed blue dragon. Tsunade scowled and scooped up Ryuu and deposited him on her desk to recover.

"Ow… I thought it was open…" he mumbled, while Tsunade read the scroll he'd brought, the first line was 'tip the dragon'. Tsunade smiled to herself to find out that Hinata was well and the information on Orochimaru was useful. The letter also promised that if they found out anything useful they'd let her know. Tsunade scooped up a couple of sweets from her drawer and sat them in front of the slowly recovering dragon. Ryuu nibbled happily at the sweets while Tsunade scanned the scroll again and made a few notes in a report.

"I know your there…" Tsunade said to the window not taking her eyes from the scroll.

"Aww your no fun…" the old man said jumping in the window and taking a seat on the edge of Tsunade's desk. "What you got there?" he asked and eyed Ryuu who grabbed his remaining sweets and glared at the old man as he tried to take one.

"Mine!" he muttered quietly through a mouthful of toffee.

"Nothing to do with you, Jiraiya. Now what do you want?" she asked closing the scroll so he couldn't see.

"What else I'm here to let you know that I'm taking Naruto today…" he said his tone turning serious. "We both know that the boy wants to seek out Sasuke and eventually he's gonna stop listening to you when you say no. That and we both know that the seal is weakening, he has to learn to harness that power or there is a good chance that…"

"Yes I know… when do you plan to leave?" she interrupted, it was not a possibility she wished to discuss or even consider.

"Naruto is packing as we speak I'm going to pick him up in an hour then we'll leave."

"Any idea as to where you plan to go?"

"Not really, but I'm sure I'll think of something." He said with a grin

"Remember he's only a kid, so chose your destinations carefully, Jiraiya." She added sternly.

"What do you take me for?" he asked sounding hurt.

"A perverted old man." She poked.

"Humph!" he crossed his arms in a huff, Ryuu chuckled.

* * *

Little over two hours later Naruto was at the village gate with Jiraiya and he was saying goodbye to his friends.

"I don't envy you about this you know." Shikamaru told him, with his hands behind his head. "All that travelling is too troublesome."

"You gotta admit it would be fun." added Chouji.

"yeah" agreed Kiba, Akamaru added his bark to it.

"Oh yeah before I forget," Naruto dug through his pockets and pulled out a key ring with three identical keys held together with a little frog key ring. "I need someone to keep an eye on my apartment while I'm away, so here, you guys may as well use it." He threw the keys and Shikamaru caught them.

"Alright a place to hang out! Thanks Naruto!" said Kiba snatching the keys and taking one off the ring and putting it on his own key ring. Naruto grinned as he said his final goodbyes as Jiraiya called him.

"Naruto! Lets go!" he called. Naruto raised his left hand in farewell.

"Who knows maybe I'll find Hinata while I'm out there." He said with a confident grin, Kiba noticed the bracelet on his wrist again. The three boys returned the wave as Naruto jogged off down the road to catch up on Jiraiya.

"What do you reckon? Does he stand a chance of finding her?" asked Chouji taking a key from Shikamaru.

"Statistically speaking he has two chances…" said Shikamaru shoving his key and hands into his pockets.

"And those are?"

"A snow balls chance in a microwave and none at all." He answered and started off into the village.

"Such a colourful analogy…" said Kiba turning to follow him, Chouji gave Naruto's shrinking form a finally glance then followed his other two friends back into the village.

"Let's check out Naruto's place" he called.

* * *

"Neji, are you okay?" asked Tenten

"Hmm?" Neji looked up.

"You seem distracted? Something wrong?" Tenten asked a little concerned about her team mate

"Yeah I'm … I'm fine, just a little tired" he said rubbing his temples, "I'm just gonna head on home, I'll see you tomorrow…" he started walking down the road.

"Yeah… okay…" said Tenten a little too quietly to be heard by Neji.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Lee coming up beside Tenten.

"I don't know but he's been little this all week…"

"Should we try and cheer him up?"

"No… just let him be he'll be okay…" Tenten said, "I hope…" she added quietly to herself.

As he walked down the main road of the Hyuuga compound he saw a cart sitting just outside the main Hyuuga family's house hold. Curious he jumped up on to the roofs and looked down into the court yard, there was Lord Hiashi speaking to a few men, he pointed in doors then left the men.

Neji was sitting on a roof and scowled at the activity below. Boxes where being removed from the main families house. Where they where taking them he didn't know but he knew what was in them. Hinata's things. Two weeks… it hadn't even been two weeks and they where clearing her away, removing her memory. Not even a picture of her survived the clear out, it was as if Hiashi wanted to completely remove any evidence that she had ever existed. The boxes where piled just outside the house door in the courtyard while others where being packed up. Movement next to the boxes caught his eye. It was Hanabi, Hinata's little sister and favourite of their father. Hinata's disappearance had affected the young girl as well, with no mother Hanabi had always looked up to Hinata in that respect, after the hard training sessions with Hiashi it was Hinata that treated her cuts and comforted her when she was upset, although it rarely showed out side the confines of their home the two were close, closer that many people thought. Hanabi ran to the pile of boxes and pilfered a number or items, saving them from the trash pile. She took a picture, a few other small items and a stuffed toy panda. Hinata had had that panda toy for as long as Neji could remember, a gift from her long dead mother, she used to sleep with it but now that she was older it just stayed next to her pillow, only used in times of depression or sadness. Neji could see why Hanabi would want to save it. As quickly as she came she left again with the rescued items just before the men came back to get the boxes. Neji couldn't watch any longer and left the roof. Later that day he was walking down a corridor in the main family's house when he heard noises from the room he was passing, Hinata's room. Pausing he listened carefully the noises had stopped, but he had heard them. Neji silently slid the door to the room open, it was completely empty now of anything that suggested that the room was ever used, all that remained was a desk and bed frame with a new mattress folded on its end. Neji was about to turn away when he spotted something, the top of a purple haired head hiding behind the desk.

_Hinata? No it can't be…_ "Hanabi?" he said softly, the head shrank down below the desktop. Neji slid the door closed behind him as he stepped into the room. He walked around to the other side of the desk. Hanabi was sitting on the floor clutching the panda, her face was turned away from him.

"Hanabi?" he repeated.

"Why did she have to run away? Why didn't she just stay in the village?" the young girl said into the fur of the panda, she held it close and inhaled Hinata's scent, the picture was sitting next to her. It was a picture of the family from years ago, Hiashi stood in the background with a smile, in front of him was a seated woman with purple hair and a motherly glow cradling a small child of around one, and seated in the front was a young girl with a shy smile and a panda toy in her arms. This was the only picture of her mother that was in the house, the only one where the whole family looked happy. The picture normally stood on Hinata's desk and once Hanabi had stolen it and hid it in her own room, it was the only time when Hinata had ever raised her voice to Hanabi.

"I…I don't know." Neji offered.

"She'll come back… right?" Hanabi asked him looking at Neji with hopeful eyes, her eyes where damp and eyelashes clumped together. "Right?" Hanabi was only young she'd only just entered the academy.

"Yeah… she'll come back…" Neji tried to offer a reassuring smile but he couldn't manage it. He knew what would happen to an expelled clan member, he knew exactly why Hinata couldn't be found, and he knew that Hinata was never coming back.

* * *

_**Hey I wasn't in this chapter! And could Hiashi be any more of a asshole!!**_

_Well this story isn't focused on you, and yes he could be… plus this chapter points out some stuff which is important for later_

_**Like you haven't said that before…**_

_Meh, like I care what you think… Read and Review please and thank you!!_


	16. Chapter 16: Infiltration

_here be next chapter! enjoy!!_

* * *

**Infiltration**

Takara woke Hinata early the next day it was time to start the training.

"Five more Minutes….." Monoki begged groggily

"Am I to assume you aren't going to take your training seriously?" Takara asked, Monoki shot up from under the blanket in a flash.

"Iamhere, I'mawake" sheshoutedloudlyblinkingtoremove….started…taka…punche…

* * *

_Er… what are you doing?_

_**Fast forwarding the story**_

_Why?_

_**Cuz this is boring, it's nothing but filler for a while**_

_Hey, gimme that remote!!_

_**No! GETOFF NO! **__Gimme, __**no! She's biting me!!! Letgo!! **__GIMME!!_

_(Fight in sues, little writer vs Konohua jonin… gee I wonder who wins)_

_**Okay then, cutting out the seven pages of boredom inducing crap…. There here's the good stuff and don't worry I didn't hurt LMD**__**… too much**_

_(Muffled screams)_

* * *

**Infiltration**

"Ready?" whispered Takara.

"Hai" answered Hinata staring ahead at the walls. The pair where crouched in a tree near the walls they would need to get over to infiltrate the village, it was a new moon so there was very little light, less chance they'd be spotted. Takara was dressed in her ANBU uniform and her mask, where as Hinata was just dressed in dark clothes with a bandana wrapped around the bottom of her face and dark glasses covered her eyes. They had spent the last two months in Red Bean and Honey countries, Takara had trained Hinata harshly in tai-jutsu and chakra control, just like she had said she would and Hinata had worked hard and showed great improvement. Her attacks where faster and had more force behind them. Hinata's endurance had also greatly increased as well as her chakra reserve, she was now able to walk further for longer and their training sessions where getting longer. If she continued to improve at this rate Takara would be able to move onto ninjutsu and genjutsu, and perhaps a little more.

"Okay, watch the movements of the watchmen carefully, study their pattern of patrol." Infiltration, another skill Takara was drilling Hinata in, and now sneaking into this village was perfect for her to display what she has learned. Hinata had scouted the best location to infiltrate from. A tall tree that over looked the walls, it wasn't too far, nor too close to be under surveillance. It was within easy jumping distance (for a ninja) of the wall. Hinata tightened the straps that held her backpack to her shoulders, Takara did the same and both scanned the walls with their own blood line traits, but Takara was letting Hinata call the shots in this one.

"Now" said Hinata sharply and they both jumped for the wall, landing silently on the battlements they jumped down into the shadows below the wall. All before the guard turned around again, he never even noticed.

"Good! But we're not home free yet, follow me now, we gotta get outta the open." Said Takara, Hinata nodded and fell into step behind Takara as she led the way across the rooftops in the darkened village. She stopped in a tree. The test of Hinata's skill was over.

"That's where we're going." Takara pointed at a face in the mountain above the village.

"Behind the first Hokage's head?"

"Yup"

"Okay then… I never knew there was anything there." Hinata felt strange, she was back in Konohua again and she was a little on edge, but after two months she doubted that anyone would be worried about her. That upset her a little but it also made her feel good for some reason. She glanced around the village, nothing major had changed. Looking to her left she could see the Hyuuga compound. Scowling a little at the memories that place held for her, none good. In truth she didn't really miss that place.

"Come on, sooner we get there the sooner we can get off our feet." Said Takara.

"Yeah" they headed off again heading right for the monument. Under the Firsts chin was a sealed door, nothing fancy or eye catching, just a door.

"Shouldn't this place be guarded?" Hinata asked.

"It is, only a leaf village ANBU knows how to open these doors. Turn." Takara twirled her finger.

"AW come on!" Hinata complained, but turned around anyway. Takara did a few hand signs and the seal on the door released. Touching Hinata on the shoulder she beckoned the girl inside. Just in the door was a set of stairs that led up into the mountain. Hinata felt that she'd need to be ANBU level fitness just to make it up the almost endless stairs. Breathing heavily Hinata followed Takara (who also was a little short of breath) as she stepped off the stairway and lead the way down a dimly lit corridor. They past a few other masked ANBU in the corridors but the interactions between them where merely nods in the others direction. Hinata stayed close to Takara and therefore didn't get a second glance. Finally Takara stopped outside a room and opened the door motioning Hinata inside. The door wasn't labelled and inside was dark. Takara entered the room behind Hinata and closed the door cutting off the dim light. It remained dark for a few seconds until Takara turned on the light. The room was filled with shelves and cupboards, with a table in the centre and a few doors. On the left was a shelf unit filled with ANBU masks. Takara walked forward and set her pack down next to the table and pulled off her mask setting it down on the table.

"What are we doing here?" asked Hinata setting down her own pack.

"A few reasons really. I'm outta mustard bombs and kunai, my ANBU amour needs replacing… I should have done that last time I was here." Takara started and took off the damaged and worn armour vest, she picked at a hole in the back, kunai inflicted. "Also to get you a more suitable disguise, pick a mask."

"What?" Hinata asked.

"Pick a mask" Takara repeated and pointed at the wall stacked with the masks.

"Would I be allowed to wear one of those? I'm not an ANBU."

"I know but you're an ANBU's apprentice, and in that right we may encounter situations where we need to be ANBU, walking around Konohua for example, so pick a mask while I try to find a new armour vest…" she trailed off and went to rummage in a store room, with mutterings of 'too small, too big…' Hinata looked back at the wall and scanned along it. Cat, wolf, serpent, dragon, hawk, monkey… there where so many, how would she choose.

"Right sorted," Takara broke her thoughts as she came back into the room with two armour vests, one was a far too small for her. "Right, uniform…" said Takara to herself and headed back into the storeroom.

"Takara-sensei?"

"Yeah?" came the answer from the other room.

"How did you choose your mask?" Takara came back into the room with an ANBU uniform, also too small for her, it was intended for Hinata.

"You know everyone expected me to choose the serpent mask… because I'm a Royki, but even though snakes are in my blood I never really had much love for the creatures. I spent a while just scanning the masks then one jumped out at me." Takara said and picked up her cat mask from the table.

"What came first the mask or the tattoos?" Hinata teased, indicating the two panther tattoos on Takara's arms, she had often asked about them but Takara had always said she'd tell her about it another time.

"The mask, an ANBU's mask tends to reflect their personality, the cat for example, stealthy yet dangerous" she chuckled, "so see any that 'jump out' at you yet?"

"Not really…" said Hinata returning her gaze to the shelves.

"Take your time, I gotta find a couple things…" with that she disappeared though another door, it looked like an armoury.

Hinata picked up a dragon mask and studied it, she wouldn't call herself fierce so this didn't suit, as she set it back onto the shelf another caught her eye. Picking up the other mask she smiled it was perfect.

"What ya got?" asked Takara after dumping her load on the table and shoving a few wrapped items into her pack. Hinata turned and showed her the mask.

"That the one you want?" Hinata nodded.

"Fox mask, what made you choose that?" she asked taking the blank mask from her and heading back to the table. She opened a drawer and pulled out a paint brush and a number of inks.

"I dunno really…" Hinata replied quietly following Takara over.

"Pick a colour" Takara said.

"Purple…" Takara nodded and started painting markings onto the mask that matched her own, a stripe across the right eye, three slightly curved lines on the left cheek and an outline on the mouth. As well as this she painted a small ANBU swirl symbol on the right cheek but coloured the circle. While she worked on this Hinata mused over her choice.

"I guess I choose it because it seems to suit me…"

"How so?" asked Takara not looking up from her work.

"Foxes are shy creatures, they tend to avoid unnecessary combat, but when provoked or cornered they can be vicious."

"No argument from me, matches you perfectly then." Takara chuckled and blew gently on the paint.

"What's that?" Hinata asked pointing to the ANBU symbol.

"That is the symbol of the ABNU black ops, every member has this tattooed onto them when they become ANBU, normally it's on the left upper arm."

"Where's yours?" Hinata glanced at Takara's arm, there was only her panther tattoo.

"I was meant to be an undercover ANBU so the tattoo on the arm would have been a bit of a give away, its here instead." Takara lifted her short hair from the back of her neck, there was the tattoo just below her hair line, it was tiny and easily concealed.

"The markings on your mask match mine to show that your under me and the symbol on it means that you not really an official ANBU. Just being trained by one." The paint was dry and she handed the mask to Hinata. Hinata took the mask from Takara and studied the markings on it while Takara placed her pilfered items in to her pack and wrote the items onto a requisition sheet and signed her name. Then, donning her mask, she motioned Hinata to follow her out of the room. Hinata took off the bandana and dark glasses and put on her own mask, which hid her huge grin. Again Takara lead the way down the dim corridors, down the stairs and back out into the night air.

"So now where?"

"We sleep…" said Takara yawning loudly, Hinata was glad to hear that they had been walking almost non-stop for a week to get back to the village before the date Tsunade had set and Honey country was bloody far away. "I got a dorm room so we can stay there tonight and report to Tsunade in the morning…. Or afternoon depending on if we bother to get up." Hinata chuckled and followed Takara to the dorms. Once there Takara opened the door with the keys she still had and stepped inside, Hinata followed, they dumped their packs on the ground and headed for the bed room, the problem, only one bed.

"I call bed!" shouted Hinata quickly.

"Hell no! it's my place, and I'm the sensei!." Takara shot back.

"Damnit…" with a little more arguing Hinata ended up sleeping on the sofa, which was only a two seater and far too small to lie comfortably on.

Next morning Takara told Hinata to get dressed into the ANBU uniform that she had got last night.

"We're gonna stay in the village for a couple of days and I know I don't have to remind you to keep your face hidden, that's one of the reasons I got you the mask, but one more thing, come here."

"What?" Hinata came over while pulling the armoured vest over her black top. Takara set her hand on Hinata's head. It felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on her head.

"There." Takara withdrew her hand.

"What did you do?" she reached up to touch her hair almost expecting it to be wet, it wasn't, it was however brown.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY HAIR!!!!!"

"Relax! In case you haven't noticed the only people in the village with purple hair are Hyuugas. So I'm afraid that was necessary!" said Takara dodging a punch.

"I suppose…" she fingered her brown hair and frowned.

"Meh, come on, get your mask on and let's go." Takara and Hinata, both wearing ANBU uniforms and cowls, headed down the main street of the village toward the Hokage building. No one looked twice at the two ANBU and no one suspected that a girl presumed dead was strolling down the street. As they walked in the main doors they pasted by Shikamaru and Hinata had to stop herself greeting him. He walked past them hands shoved in pockets his mind on other things.

"Enter!" came the reply from inside the Hokage's office when Takara knocked. Tsunade was behind her desk almost hidden with the pile of paperwork that was making its home on top of the desk. She looked up when two ANBU entered the room.

"What's this?" she asked.

"An intelligence report." Replied the larger one.

"Eh?" Tsunade asked. Both ANBU hung their heads.

"Royki Takara and Monoki…" the larger one said. "Ring a bell?"

"Oh! Right. Well then deliver your report." Tsunade listened to the intelligence Takara had gathered, nothing great but a few interesting rumours.

"Very well then, now tell me how is 'Monoki' progressing?" Tsunade asked with a knowing glance at the young girl behind the fox mask.

"Well, she's making great progress." Takara clapped Hinata on the shoulder. Hinata smiled behind her mask.

"Tsunade-sama?" Hinata said quietly.

_God damnit after all that she's flipping shy again!_ Takara shook her head slightly, _I get that habit outta you yet_. Takara swore to herself.

"What is it?"

"How is everyone in the village?" she asked a little louder.

_Oh maybe not a lost cause_ Takara brightened a little.

"Not much has changed but I will tell you that girl Hinata is certainly missed by her old friends, you know they continued to search for that girl for about a month after she disappeared. A whole fortnight after the search was called off, all of them still keep an eye out for her while missions to other countries." Tsunade spoke as if it was a completely different person in front of her and had a small smile on her face. Hinata was glad to hear that someone missed her.

* * *

_**There see this was so much better than tai jutsu filler. And yes it was a tiny 2 month time skip.**_

_Okay fine … can you untie me now?_

_**No… (puts duck tape over mouth) also to Dragon man 180 can you read our minds or something? Ur predictions are scarily spot on lol**_

**_Read and Review, Please and Thank you!_**


	17. Chapter 17: Paranoid Hyuuga

_WOOT over 6000 views!! I never expected that!_

_**Any way so what we're back in the village now what?**_

_You gonna read to see_

* * *

**Paranoid Hyuuga**

"You all did well on that mission!" Gai told his team triumphantly as they headed to report in.

"It was only an escort mission…" Neji replied sourly.

"Bah! Either way it is invaluable experience!" Gai brushed off Neji's comment.

"Of course Gai-sensei!" agreed Lee, Tenten rolled her eyes. As Gai reached to knock at the Hokage's door it opened and Gai was staring into the mask of an ANBU. He jumped back a bit then stepped back to allow the ANBU to leave, following behind the first one was another ANBU once out the door this one seemed to pause and the mask turned to face Neji. The emotionless mask of a face seemed to stare right at him, Neji felt a shiver run up his spine, it was only for a split second before the ANBU moved on again, but to him it seemed a lot longer. Neji followed the progress of the two ANBU down the corridor until Tenten tapped his shoulder, making him jump.

"What's wrong?" He looked back down the corridor, the ANBU where gone.

"Nothing…" he answered and followed her into the room, but he had felt like that ANBU's gaze had been burrowing into him.

* * *

"How long are we going to stay in the village?" asked Hinata as they walked out of the Hokage's tower. 

"Maybe a few days, just long enough to stock up of supplies and maybe relax a little…" Hinata grinned it was rare they got to just 'relax' "Maybe…" added Takara, Hinata scowled behind her mask, that meant no. Takara paused out side a restaurant.

"Dango?" she offered, Takara smelt them cooking as they past the open door, and dango was one of her favourites, this was not to be past up, dango, or at least the good stuff, was hardy ever found outside of Konohua.

"Yeah" Hinata replied quickly, it had been a long time since they had eaten in a proper restaurant and jumped at the chance to get a decent meal, unlike Takara's very dodgy field cooking. They took a seat at an empty table and ordered some dango, while they waited Takara pulled a scroll out of her cowl and handed it to Hinata.

"What's this?" She asked picking the scroll open.

"It's a diagram of the human muscle network, by learning where each muscle is and what it controls will be an advantage, besides I'm eventually going to teach you some basic medical ninjutsu" Takara replied.

"Basic?" Hinata asked sounding a little disappointed.

"Yes well my medical skills aren't exactly perfect, I can only teach you what I know…" Takara huffed a little, "Further into the scroll is a diagram showing main pressure points and the circulatory system. Knowing these will be help in battle as well." Hinata wasn't listening anymore she was scanning through the diagrams and the labels and captions.

* * *

Gai was taking his students out to eat, like he did after every successful mission, but his wallet was a little light so he opted to take them for something cheaper than normal, and that meant dango. As they entered the first thing Neji saw was the two ANBU, they where the came ones from before. They were seated in the corner of the room with their backs to the wall and facing into the rest of the room. The larger one was seated next to the other and ran her finger across the open scroll in front of them on the table, the mask bobbed as the ANBU spoke. Gai, oblivious to Neji's concern over the creepy ANBU choose the table right in front of them. Gai and Neji sat with their backs to the ANBU, Lee and Tenten sat opposite them. Gai ordered the dango. 

"Neji? What's wrong with you?" Neji was nervously glanced over his shoulder, Tenten scowled at him.

"I think that ANBU is watching me…" he said a little paranoid.

"Wha…?" Tenten leant slightly to her left to look behind Gai, who was paying no heed to them. The larger ANBU lifted a dango and it disappeared under the mask, the smaller one was doing the same but the head was bent forward slightly as if reading the scroll, but the finger was in the same place as it was when they entered. The masks prevented her from knowing for sure where the ANBU was looking, but Neji was acting really weird, it was like when Hinata disappeared all over again. This had also peeked Lee's interest and he was looking over Neji's shoulder at the two ANBU as well.

The larger one reached forward to lift a cup of tea; as she did her arm snaked out from under the cowl. There was something dark on the upper arm. Lee furrowed his brow thinking, why was that familiar. As the ANBU drank the cowl slipped away to reveal a panther tattoo on the bicep. Lee's mouth dropped open he pointed past Neji and shouted.

"TAKARA-SENSEI!!!" the ANBU inhaled sharply in shock, unfortunately it was before she removed the cup from her lips and she started choking.

"LEE!!" she shouted while coughing and spluttering. "There's a reason ANBU wear masks!!!" during her coughing fit she had pulled off her mask and set it on the table and now she glared at lee with a red face.

"Takara?" Gai turned at his students outcry, "Takara! You're back again!" he said with a grin.

"Hey Gai…" said Takara suppressing a few more coughs, the smaller ANBU was sniggering at the coughing fit. "Did ya miss me?" she said with a grin the redness from coughing fading form her face. Gai only grinned and switched tables to sit with his old friend, his students followed. Tenten sat next to the small ANBU while Gai and the two boys sat opposite on the bench. The younger ANBU rolled up the scroll that was open on the table to make room for their plates that was just brought to them. The scroll was a diagram of chakra pathways, Neji watched as the scroll quickly disappeared into the small ANBU's cowl.

"So this is one of your reports then?" Gai asked.

"Yup, reported in this morning just before you appeared, we'll be resting in the village for a few days before we set off again." Takara told him picking up her ANBU mask and putting it into her cowl.

"We?" Gai glanced to Takara's left at the other ANBU. "Who's this?"

"This…" started Takara proudly, "is my apprentice, Royki Monoki." Monoki nodded.

"Monoki…" Neji muttered to himself, and stared intently at the fox mask.

_Oh shit oh shit oh shit… Neji will recognise my chakra signature, then again, it would have changed after all that training… but I'll have to be careful _Monoki thought to herself when she noticed he was staring, she turned her head so she looked at him square on_. What is he staring at... does he suspect?_

"What?" she said a little gruffer than she intended, the mask muffled her voice slightly and her louder tone meant that none of the other genin recognised her voice. Neji jumped, the empty eyes of Monoki's mask where staring right at him, he sweat dropped and looked away quickly.

"Nothing…" he said in a slightly higher tone.

"sseehhh, Tenten sighed and glared at her paranoid team mate. Gai and Takara chatted ideally away so Lee tried to strike up a conversation.

"So… Monoki…" started Lee. "I haven't seen you around before."

"Lee you don't know what she looks like how would you know if you've seen her before…" Tenten's face dropped at the idiotic statement Lee had just come out with. Monoki chuckled behind the mask.

"Oh yeah…" Lee rubbed his head and chuckled.

"Anyway aside from him… My names Tenten, the green idiot is Lee and that's Neji," Lee grinned, but Neji stared intently at his drink. "Are you from the village?" Tenten asked.

"kinda…" answered Monoki, a dango disappeared under the mask." I'm from one of the smaller villages just outside the main walls." This was a story that Takara had drilled into her before they jumped back over the village walls. "I came here to the main village to the academy." Monoki was glad for the mask, because although her voice was steady her face was frozen in fear.

"You weren't here with Takara-sensei last time then?" Lee asked, and searched his memory of a girl coming to the village with Takara or even before that, he couldn't remember.

"No, I wasn't, She picked me up after she left the village two months ago."

"Yes and since then we've been on a mission which is classified" said Takara, cutting of f Lee's probing for more information, and also saving Monoki from an explanation.

The group had finished their meal, Takara and Gai halved the bill, even though there was four of his team and only two of hers.

"Cheap skate…" muttered Tenten under her breath. They left the restaurant and Takara was still taking to Gai out side.

"Oi, Tenten!" It was Sakura coming up the street, Tenten cringed but forced a smile as she turned to the pink haired girl bouncing up the street towards her.

"Oh hey Sakura…" Tenten laughed nervously

"Hey guys," she waved to Lee and Neji, "so we still on for later on?" she turned back to Tenten.

"err, sure…" she sweat dropped, Ino and Sakura had invited her to go out shopping with them, something which was scarier than Lee's eyebrows.

"Great! We're meeting up at Yu Dun's clothes shop in around an hour…" she trailed off when she saw Takara and Monoki. Tenten glanced over her shoulder, following Sakura's gaze.

"Hey Monoki, why don't you come out with us?" _and spare me from this torture_. Monoki looked up to Takara, who glanced at her watch.

"Sure why not… Have the afternoon off" Takara smiled down at the girl, "but remember Monoki, an ANBU does not reveal their face…" she added strictly.

"Hai!" Monoki nodded sharply

"Speaking of, we should get outta these ANBU uniforms, Monoki will meet you there" she added to Sakura and Tenten and placed her hand on her students shoulder. Monoki nodded again.

"I'll meet you later on then Takara!" exclaimed Gai with a thumbs up and the usual blinding tooth ping. Takara blinked several times to try regain her vision.

"You could use that as a weapon!" muttered Monoki rubbing at her own eyes, or at least trying to through the mask. Takara gave a little wave and with a close eyed smile said,

"Je ne!" with that the two disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Who was that anyway?" asked Sakura

"That was Royki Monoki, Takara-sensei's apprentice, she seems alright, kinda quiet though."

_And creepy at that… _thought Neji, "Come on Lee lets get outta here"

"Hai"

* * *

Takara and Monoki reappeared with a puff of smoke outside their dorm. 

"You have got to teach me that…" said Monoki, referring to the transportation jutsu Takara had just performed on the two of them.

"All in due time…" Takara smiled and searched her pockets for her keys.

"Takara… is this a good idea?" Monoki said a little sadly.

"What?" Takara asked as she opened the door and stepped inside.

"Me hanging around with my old friends… what if they recognise me?" Monoki closed the door and took off her mask.

"I'll admit there is a danger of that…but think of this as a test, a challenge. A way to test your infiltration skills" Monoki smirked.

"You think I can pull it off?"

"Yup… as I said before consider this a day off, there's something I need to see to anyway. So get changed and go out and have a bit of fun." Hinata nodded and headed towards the bedroom to get changed into her green trousers and short sleeved black tee-shirt, it was warm outside so she left the jacket. Donning her hat, dark glasses and a Kakashi style mask she looked into the mirror, she looked nothing like her old self. The mask was black as well and extended down her neck and seemed to blend with the tee-shirt.

"I can do this…" she said to her reflection, her voice was muffled, her eyes were hidden, her chakra signature had changed as well as her physical appearance, she no longer hid behind a thick jacket all the time but stood tall, the cubbiness in her cheeks had faded and that habit of playing with her fingers was beaten out long ago. There was little left of her old self that her old friends would never know who she was.

"Takara-sensei?" Hinata called coming out of the bedroom. Takara was gone, on the table was note and a small pile of money.

**"There's something I need to look into, here's some cash, get yourself something nice. I'll see you later on,**

**Remember, be careful!"**

"No need to tell me that twice." Monoki pocketed the money and headed out the door, it was nearly time to meet the girls, but she couldn't help but wonder where Takara went.

"Why'd you invite her? We don't even know her" said Sakura to Tenten as they waited.

"Invite who?" asked Ino.

"Her names Monoki, and she seems nice enough, let's just give her a chance." Tenten said.

"All right, fine…" said Sakura "I just hope she doesn't show up with that ANBU mask on, those things creep me out."

"Good thing I didn't wear it then" the voice came from behind. Sakura jumped and turned swiftly to face what she could only assume was Monoki. The girls face was almost completely covered, even her eyes.

"Err hi… Monoki wasn't it?" Sakura rubbed her head.

"Yeah… so what are we doing?" she asked turning to Tenten.

"We're going shopping." Replied Tenten, sounding less then thrilled. "This is Ino and you've already met

Sakura" Monoki nodded in the girls directions as they where introduced. The four girls headed into the clothes shop and while Ino and Sakura went on a shopping spree Tenten hung back with Monoki and browsed the racks. Neither had much interest in shopping.

"The way I see it, a ninja's clothing needs to be practical." Monoki said to Tenten while Ino and Sakura where in the changing rooms.

"I couldn't agree more." Tenten sighed, "but they insist on dragging me out with them to get another's opinion. But even then they don't listen to me."

"Then why don't you bugger off on them?" Monoki jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the changing rooms. Tenten laughed.

"I'd love to but I'd never hear the end of it." This time Monoki chuckled but not at what Tenten had said but at what Ino came of the changing room wearing. A blue mini skirt and a pink top.

"Pink doesn't suit you…" Monoki said walking up to Ino. "Here try this," she said handing her a button down green tee-shirt, "It would go well with those knee length shorts you took in a while ago."

"Eh?" Ino took the shirt from Monoki then looked at Tenten, who shrugged.

"Well try it on then." Tenten said. Ino went back into the changing rooms and came back out a short time later wearing the dark blue knee lengths and the long button down tee-shirt.

"Now that looks good" said Tenten.

"Ya think? I dunno it seems a bit much, I mean it's too baggy it'll make me look fat." Ino said plucked at the shirt. It was nothing like the tight and small clothes she normally wore.

"In Honey country women wear padded belts under their clothes to make themselves look larger." Monoki intoned.

"Why would they do that?" asked Ino in disbelief,

"Because the men don't like women who are too skinny…"

"Really?"

"Yup…" Ino glanced back at the mirror.

"Maybe its not so bad." In the end up Ino bought the outfit.

* * *

_End chap 17_

_**Aww Monoki making new friends**_

_Eh? She knows that already_

_**Yeah but they don't know 'Monoki' do they**_

_Yeah right okay….._

_Read and Review Please and Thank you_


	18. Chapter 18:The Old Gang and Painful Past

_Did we enjoy the shopping trip? Its not over yet heehee_

_**I get worried when you act like that?**_

_Like what?_

_**Like you got something planned…**_

_Why would she do that?_

_**Oh great the sugar fuelled hyper psycho is back**_

_HEY!!_

_Ssh! Anyway, a couple of chuckles and a glimpse into Takara's past ohh ohh enjoy! _

* * *

**The Old Gang and Painful Pasts**

Monoki had a similar effect on Sakura later on in the day, and while Monoki was paying for a wallet she choose for herself the three girls talked.

"Well I like her." Started Tenten

"Yeah she seems okay to me" agreed Ino

"No argument from me, how about we take her to the flat to meet the rest of the guys." Sakura suggested.

"Yeah" the other two agreed. Monoki walked back over to them pulling the price tag off the little wallet, it was rusty brown with a little fuzzy, chibi fox with a toothy grin on the front.

"Hey Monoki, fancy meeting some other friends of ours?" Sakura asked.

"Why not?" the mask wrinkled as she smiled. Monoki followed the girls and they chatted away. Ino led the way to an apartment block and up on to the second floor. Setting down her bags she fished a key outta her pocket. As she fumbled with the lock Monoki looked around, why did this look familiar, wait this was Naruto's flat! **Why does Ino have a key!!!!!!? **Monoki glared at the skinny blonde from behind her glasses, no it couldn't possibly be that could it? Naruto could be 'dating' her could he? Ino pushed the door open and while she gathered up her bags Sakura headed in the door and Tenten gave Monoki a shove in the door. As they stepped inside music drifted down the hall way. Hinata started to panic, what if Naruto was here!? She knew that she'd get shy again and wouldn't be able to control her nervous habit of playing with her fingers! She'd be recognised! Sakura was first into the den area.

"Hey guys!" she said lightly and continued on into the kitchen and dumped her shopping bags on the table. Monoki was panicking as she rounded the wall into the living room.

There in the den was Shikamaru lounging on the sofa, Shino in the corner with a book and Kiba in the middle of the room playing Guitar Hero with great enthusiasm, Akamaru was curled up on a pillow dozing, and Chouji was sitting on the second sofa behind Kiba but no Naruto. Monoki nearly sighed with relief. Ino walked on past her and dumped her bags on the table next to Sakura's then returned to the den and flumfed down next to Shikamaru on the sofa.

"Hey don't just hover in the doorway come in." said Tenten. It was this that caught the others attention. Shikamaru, Shino, Chouji and Akamaru looked up at the stranger, Kiba on the other hand didn't look up until he finished the song

"Alright 5 stars!! Wait! Who's that at the top of the score board? Who's this Skip guy? Shikamaru who did you lend the memory card to!!??"

"It was pre-owned…" Shikamaru shrugged.

The small puppy jumped up on the back of the sofa and titled his little head to look at Monoki.

_Oh no! Akamaru will recognise my scent!_ The puppy however didn't. _My scent must had changed as well, must have been the training in a different location._ Tenten went around the room and introduced the 'stranger' to the others in the room.

"Hey guys, this is Monoki, that's Shikamaru," he raised his arm

"Hey…" the arm fell back down and around Ino's shoulders, Monoki raised an eyebrow at this but was distracted as Tenten introduced the others.

"that's Shino in the corner…" he only nodded.

"That's Chouji…" Chouji grinned kindly

"Hello"

"And Kiba on the PS2…"

"Yo!" he grinned holding up the guitar controller

"And this loveable lump of fluff is Akamaru." She said giving the puppy a quick scratch behind his floppy ears. The dog barked happily in reply.

"Ano… Hi guys…" Monoki said and was glad the glasses hid her eyes because they where wide in fear, she would have to be really careful about how she behaved and what she said, if she gave any hint that she knew any of them it could make them suspicious.

"Hey Monoki wanna drink?" called Sakura around the fridge door.

"Er… yeah please, coke if you got it" Tenten pushed Monoki on into the room and into an empty arm chair.

"Gesh will you relax" Tenten said and gigged. Monoki chuckled nervously, she had to find out where Naruto was.

"So who owns this place?" she asked Tenten as casually as she could.

"It belongs to a guy we know called Naruto," Shikamaru answered, "but since he's gone outta town for a good while he gave me, Kiba and Chouji keys but 'somehow'," he said glaring at Ino "a few copies appeared and the rest of the gang got a hold of em."

"What? Not my fault you left your keys in my house." Ino said innocently.

"It is when you pick pocket them…" he replied quietly. Naruto wasn't here, she was glad but upset at the same time. Tenten forced conversations between the genin (and Shikamaru) to break the ice, by the time Sakura handed Monoki her Coke she was speaking openly to the rest of the gang but keeping close to her story.

"Damit Kiba will you get off that thing!" Tenten ranted and pointed at the PS2.

"Hang on! This is a hard bit!!" he shot back his unblinking eyes never left the screen, his fingers darted up and down the fret buttons. Monoki had been chatting to Chouji, Shino was back in his book, Sakura was painting her nails, Shikamaru and Ino where having a very quiet conversation on the other sofa. Tenten sat on the edge of the sofa beside Monoki and watched Kiba play. Chouji got up to get a packet of crisps thus ending their conversation.

"AGH my arm!! Cramp! Cramp!" Kiba shouted holding his arm.

Monoki looked around the room, the living room was the biggest room in the flat, with one sofa against the right wall, another in the middle of the floor facing the TV, which was in a bookshelf/entertainment centre combo, on the left was a window and two arm chairs pushed against the wall and a beanbag chair in the corner. Beside the sofa on the right wall was a wide doorless arch that led into the kitchen, and on the back wall was a large dresser. The items on the large book shelf included scrolls and random books or manga comics to DVDs, a couple of PS2 games and a couple of rolled up PS2 controllers, at least one thing on that shelf belonged to one of the others. On the walls were pictures of all the genin (and Shikamaru) in their teams with their respective sensei's plus a group shot from the academy graduation day, but on the counter was a framed picture of a single genin.

"That's Hinata" Monoki's head snapped around to who had spoke, it was Kiba nursing his cramped arm, he had noticed her staring at the picture, Tenten quickly snapped up the guitar before Kiba could hog it again.

"Who's she?" Monoki asked, _let's see what they really thought of me._

"She was a close friend of ours…"Kiba trailed off

"Was?" Monoki asked

"Yeah, she disappeared a couple of months ago… no one knows what happened to her or where she went" answered Sakura.

"Her dad is a bit of a git" said Chouji

"A bit!? The guys an asshole!" said Kiba. Monoki's eyebrows disappeared under her benie hat.

"I second that!" piped Shikamaru from the sofa, Ino nodded. Monoki's eyebrows reappeared on her forehead, one of the only parts of her face they could see.

"On our last mission we where attacked by bandits… Hinata choose to save a kid and got injured in the process. When she came back her dad called her weak and disowned her." Kiba explained, a badly hidden 'bastard' was heard from behind in amongst a cough.

"She disappeared from the hospital that night. Kurenai-sensei reckons it was because of the shame but I heard rumours…" he added quietly.

"Like what?" she asked a little wary.

"That her dad had her bumped off…OWW"

"BAKA!! You know how Tsunade feels about those rumours, and you know they're not true!" Sakura punched Kiba square on the head and a large lump formed.

"GEEZZ Sakura! Just cuz Naruto's away doesn't mean you can hit me!" he whined from the floor.

Monoki chuckled at Kiba on the floor, and grabbing his arm she pulled him up.

"So no one knows where she is?" she probed

"No…" answered Sakura sadly, "Wish she come back though… it's changed around here with out her."

"Wonder where she is…" mused Chouji.

_I'm right here!!! _Monoki wanted to shout it at them but she knew that she couldn't revel herself, not even to her closet friends, Kiba didn't know how close to the truth he really was. The other genin (and Shikamaru) veered away from that topic and chatted on lighter things. Monoki talked away and was soon accepted in to the group it seemed they all took a liking to the new genin and she seemed to know what to say to who ever she was talking to. In the end they had a tournament on Guitar Hero, Tenten won, however still not managing the high score.

"Seriously who's Skip?"

* * *

Takara watched the girls for a while from the rooftops, Monoki was doing well, none of them suspected that she was Hinata, there was no need to jump in and bail Monoki out. The ANBU watched the group for around an hour until they went into an apartment. By the looks of it Monoki wouldn't need her help after all. With a smile and a final glance at the apartments window Takara set off across the rooftops there was something she needed to speak to Tsunade about. Takara crouched outside the window of the Hokage's office and waited until she finished speaking to the ninja in her office. 

"That's all." Tsunade told the ninja, they bowed and left.

"You can come in now…" she said to the window, the ANBU jumped in the window and stood in front of the Hokage's desk.

"It's hard to sneak up on you…" Takara joked.

"That's why I'm the Hokage." Tsuanude retorted. "I dug out your old file, I was convinced I knew your name from some where."

"What did you find?" Takara raised an eyebrow from behind her mask.

"That I did know you from some where… I remember this little genin." Tsunade produced a data file from the drawer holding information on all active shinobis, it held pictures of Takara across the years as well as her mission stats and over all review, Tsunade lifted one of the earlier pictures, showing a very young and scar-less Takara with a genin head band standing in front of a couple, beside her mother was a Tsunade (although she looked younger now than in the picture) and standing beside her father was a man who's face was removed from the picture.

"Royki Hizu was your mother?" Tsunade said looking at the blond woman in the picture.

"Yes…" Hizu had once been Tsunade's apprentice and was one of Konohua's greatest poison experts, she had retired when Takara was born, but fought to protect the village on the night the Nine-tails attacked along with her husband and other ninja from her clan. The Nine-tails was close to the small village in the hills above Konohua. The Royki clan, along with another small clan, drew the demon away from the small clan village and Konohua and kept its attention until more ninja from the main village where able to come and help them. Although they protected the main village most of Royki and the other clan's villages were destroyed along with most of the two clans. Hizu had been a member of a medical squad getting the injured to safety but she herself was burned badly when protecting some wounded ninjas. Her blood was poisoned by the demons fire and she had died despite the efforts of the other medics. Olpin, her father had also been a shinobi of the leaf village, a jonin, and he too was injured by the fox and crippled, but despite his injuries he was the one who got the Royki clan though the disaster and got the clan village rebuilt. But before Takara became a chuunin he had died.

"I remember this day… your mother was so proud of her little kunoichi" Tsunade referred to the picture and smiled remembering her old apprentice. "But I can't remember who this is." Tsunade showed the picture to Takara and pointed to the blanked out face. "Do you remember?"

"No…" Takara lied, she knew that man well, the uncle of her father and therefore her great uncle, his face was blacked for a reason, it was because he was the reason the Royki's where no longer respected in the village, and he was her father's killer.

"You know what this is about then?" Takara asked, changing the subject and fighting to keep her voice steady, that one picture had pulled up a number of painful memories.

"Yes, do you think Hina ... Monoki will be ready for it?" Tsunade asked bluntly over clasped fingers and not noticing the slight quiver in the ANBU's voice.

"I do…" Takara answered.

"Okay then… It's in two months in the village hidden in the sand."

"Sakura will also be attending this then?"

"Yes"

"And it has been cleared by the new Kazekage?"

"It has"

"Will we have the third member when we get there?"

"That has also been arranged, I have had talks with the Kazekage regarding this but the question is will you be there?" Tsunade asked sternly.

"We will be, Monoki has greatly improved her Tai jutsu skills, and in two months I'm confident I can teach her enough to be ready for this in time." Tsunade smirked.

"Well if you're confident enough make sure you meet with the Konohua group at Sand in two months" Takara smiled and went to the window and set her foot on the sill.

"We'll be there" with that she jumped out the window.

"Of course you will…" Tsunade watched Takara disappear into the streets below.

* * *

_I don't own the PS2 or guitar hero (if I did there'd be more jimmy Hendrix and meatloaf songs) and Skip's second cameo. It had to be done I'm sorry!! But she is unbelievable and unbeatable on that game. _

_Yes I do WOOT!! SECOND APPEARANCE YAY!!_

_Er Takara you wanna add anything?_

_**No…… (sulks in corner)**_

_oh great she's in the middle of a flash back… well anyway skip…_

_READ AND REVIEW PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!_


	19. Chapter 19:Choice of Paths

_Ok I make a little promise with myself after I posted the last chapter, that I'd post the next when I got over 8,000 hits… and that came A LOT sooner than I expected. I really can't believe how popular this is._

_**This is a shout out to our regular reviewers: Thanks for each of your reviews, from constructive criticism to scarily accurate predictions. We hope you continue to enjoy the story!**_

_Enjoy the next chapter_

* * *

**Choice of ****Paths**

There was another thing that Takara had to do and she headed for the shopping district she took off her mask and lowered her hood, she checked her wallet, clipping her mask to the back of her belt and wondered around until she found the right shop. After taking in the display in the window she entered the shop and browsed the racks until she found what she was looking for, it was perfect. Pricey, but perfect. Takara lifted the single sheath twin short swords from the rack, not to heavy, nor too large, perfect for Monoki. She paid for the swords and browsed the shelves while the weapons merchant wrapped the swords and placed them into a box. Takara smiled at the long box, it looked like a present, it would just have to be one then. Lifting the box she thanked the man and headed out of the store. Heading around just browsing around the shops, she spotted some old friends. Asuma and Kurenai where walking down the street shoulder to shoulder.

"Oh Yes … No one would believe your dating." Came a sarcastic voice from behind. The two each took a slight step to the side widening the nonexistent gap between them before turning around to face the source of the sarcasm.

"Oh look who's reappeared!" Asuma said with equal sarcasm.

"Aww, that's harsh, Asuma…" she pouted childishly then cracked a smile and chucked her arm around the back of his neck and pulled him into a half head lock. This was something Kurenai never understood between the two. They spoke to each other with so much sarcasm it was almost visible, but both always knew what the other meant always laughed about it, at one time when they where a lot younger it sounded like the two where at each others throats and everyone thought they where going to pull kunai on the other but they laughed at the other and Takara caught Asuma in her half head lock, Kurenai had once thought this was because she had a thing for Asuma but it turned out it was just the way she greeted her team mates and other close friends, mostly because she had also spotted her doing it to Kakashi and Gai.

"So what brings you back to village?" Asuma asked pulling her arm off his neck and standing up straight. Takara looked at him with a slight confused face.

"When did you get taller than me? … Anyway Tsunade-sama wants us to report in every few months just to show that we're in one piece" Asuma raised his eye brow and rolled his cigarette around in his mouth.

"First off, I was taller than you before you cleared off for a couple of years and second, who's we? Did you finally get yourself a guy? What you do, lasso him?"

"Humph, funny" she said smile not leaving her face as they started walking down the street again. "and 'she' is my apprentice…."

"Ohh lookie lookie Takara got a student!" he poked before she finished her sentence. "Who is it, any kid we know?" Kurenai who was daydreaming snapped back into the conversation.

"Nah you wouldn't know her…" Takara said off handedly "She's an orphan from one of the smaller clan villages."

"oh. Anyway I have a bone to pick with you!" Asuma poked her on the forehead.

"Ow what?" she slapped his hand away and rubbed the red mark he left.

"How about this time you leave my team alone! Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji have been working on the moves **you** showed them and talk about almost nothing else"

"Aw your little genin don't think you're cool anymore…" she said in a pouting baby voice.

"Shut up" now it was his turn to grab her in a half head lock but he rubbed his knuckles roughly against her scalp.

"OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW LETGOLETGO!!" she said between laughs and struggling not to drop the box she as holding.

"You two are like big kids!" Kurenai said shaking her head and chuckling.

"Yosh! Embrace the power of youth!"

"Oh dear kami!" Takara moaned while she wriggled out of Asuma's grip. "I really wish you wouldn't say stuff like that Gai…" she said brushing her hair back into place and hoisting the box back under her arm.

"Sorry…" he muttered. "Takara can… can I have a quick word?" he asked and jerked his head a bit indicating he wanted to speak privately.

"yeah okay…" she stepped away from Asuma and Kurenai.

"You think he's…" Asuma started.

"Oh yeah. He's been waiting for her to come back. I told you he still liked her." Kurenai told him.

"Yeah but ever since he started wearing those damn jump suits she lost interest in him."

"Well you never know… well he's smiling so something went right." Asuma waved back as Gai waved to them and jogged off.

"Well what was_**that**_ about?" Asuma asked as she wandered back over to them.

"Huh… oh Gai wanted to know if I'd spar with him tomorrow, something about an unsettled challenge…" she shrugged. Asuma chuckled and shook his head as he did his watch beeped.

"Oh, I gotta go, I'm meeting with my team in five ja ne!" he called and was gone.

"So, how long have you two been 'together'?" Takara prodded at Kurenai, she blushed

"Long enough…" she replied but if she didn't ask Takara this next question she'd explode. "Where is she?"

"Who?" Takara was thrown by the sudden change in her old friends mood

"You know who, Hin…" she paused and looked around, then lowering her voice, "Hinata"

* * *

Tenten had to be restrained later that day when she couldn't beat the high score of the mysterious previous owner of Shikamaru's pre-owned memory card ("I've been playing for three hours!!").

"Tenten the guitar is not a club!" Shouted Chouji and held her wrists while Shikamaru rescued his PS2 the obvious target of her rage.

"Do you know how many missions I had to do to afford this!"

"One…" Ino said not really caring

"Exactly and one is troublesome enough!" He said setting the PS2 down again now that Tenten had been 'dis-armed' while Chouji held her wrist Kiba had wrestled the guitar from her hands.

Monoki laughed at the comical scene and helped to restrain Tenten as she shouted cruses and threats at 'Skip'.

"You have really got to calm down!" Monoki called between the long strings of bad words. "it's only a game!"

"Ok, yeah your right. I guess I just got a little…"

"Competitive?" offered Kiba cradling the guitar and checking for damage. "We've only got one now after Lee broke the black one."

"yeah, well as fun as it is to watch Tenten commit game-acide its almost dinner time and I got to get home" said Shino from the corner, from which he didn't move during the whole time they where there, he snapped his book closed and headed out the door.

"Yeah it is getting a little late…" Sakura added and snatched up her bags from the table, "Ja ne guys, see ya around Monoki" she waved to the new girl

"Bye Sakura" Monoki waved back, Ino and Shikamaru had no intention of leaving and Chouji headed off soon after. Monoki stretched and couple of joints popping, she was sore after GH.

"I guess I'd better head off too, Thanks for letting me hang out with you guys."

"No problem" Ino smiled

"Don't be a stranger" Shikamaru called from beside Ino.

"Don't worry I won't be" she called and headed out the door. Monoki walked down the streets and grinned to herself, she had pulled it off they didn't suspect a thing, none of them recognised her. This should have made her upset but it was okay because she now knew for certain that her friends still thought of her. As she walked her stomach growled, luckily she was walking past Ichiraku's Ramen stand.

"Why not?" she said to herself as she pasted under the flaps and sat down.

"hey what will it be?" asked Ayame smiling as always.

"Mizo pork please." It didn't take long for it to be made and set in front of her, Ayame and her father Teuchi weren't paying attention to her so she pulled down her mask and started eating. While sitting there she suddenly started thinking of Naruto. She wondered where he had gone, Shikamaru had told her that he had gone off to be trained by the sannin Jiraiya. Naruto had spoke of this to her once, or rather ranted while she was there, over how Jiraiya had cleared off and was neglecting his training. It sounded like Jiraiya had finally come back for Naruto. Monoki had really wanted to see Naruto again, which was why she was so happy to be back in the village but the way she panicked when she was walking into his flat made her wonder, would she really be able to speak to him. Admittedly she was a lot more confident, she no longer stuttered and the volume of her voice had increased to a 'normal' level and that was evident because she was able to speak to her friends normally. However for that moment cool, confident, strong Monoki had disappeared and quiet, shy, weak, Hinata had been back. She sighed quietly to herself and scooped up some noodles with the chop sticks and just as she got them into her mouth Ayame said something which nearly made her choke.

"Hey Kiba, want your usual?" Behind her dark glasses her eyes widened. Here she was sitting with her mask pulled down, long noodles hanging from her mouth, preventing said mask being pulled up in a hurry and her ex-team mate just sat down two stools down from her.

"Yeah, please!" Kiba grinned and sat on the high stool, Akamaru jumped up on the other stool, but quickly got back down when Teuchi glared at him. Akamaru sniffed and smelt something familiar and barked at the figure a little down the bar. Kiba looked down at Akamaru and then over to who he had barked at.

"Huh?" he knew that girl! "Hey! You're…" Monoki, with noodles still hanging from her mouth got ready to sprint.

"You're … Monoki right!" Monoki looked at him dumb struck and blinked a few times, Kiba wasn't really known for his intelligence, but this was a little much.

"Hey, Kiba wasn't it?" she grinned more out of relief and disguised her voice a little since she didn't have her mask to muffle it. Kiba got up and walked over to sit next to her intending to strike up a conversation.

"Is it true that you're Takara-sensei's student?" He asked.

"Er… yeah…" she answered slowly, not sure where this conversation was going.

"Cool has she taught you any sweet techniques? Thanks" he asked as he was handed his ramen.

"er… not really we've only been focusing on tai jutsu for now."

"Tai jutsu? How long has she been your sensei?"

"only about two months" she answered and slurped up the noodles from the chopsticks. Kiba talked on about the beast fusion technique he'd learned and how he had nearly perfected it. Monoki just let him chat away while she finished her ramen, occasionally she'd offer a few comments. Suddenly a blue streak flashed past her face headed right for the remaining ramen in her bowl. With lighting reflexes she caught the blue blur which turned out to be Ryuu.

"No fair Let me go!" She held the squirming dragon where she caught him a mere few inches from her bowl.

"What the…?" Kiba dropped his chopsticks and stared at the struggling dragon in Monoki's hand.

"What do you want Ryuu?" Monoki asked flatly

"Ramen!!" the dragon shot back and stretched his little forearms into the bowl but not quite reaching the noodles. Monoki rolled her eyes and lifted the dragon away from her food, despite his loud protests.

"I'll rephrase the question. What does Takara want?"

"She wants you to get your butt back to the dorm. And I WANT RAMEN!" the dragon twisted in her grip reaching for the bowl but not getting very far.

"Okay what's that?" Kiba pointed at Ryuu.

"He's Takara's summon creature but he's not all there in the head."

"I resent that! Now let me go!" the dragon protested and bit her finger.

"OW!" in retaliation Monoki grabbed the dragon's long moustache like whiskers.

"Okay I'm sorry!" he shouted before she even pulled on them and his already high voice went a few octaves higher.

"Okay fine! You can finish the ramen" she set the dragon down and he dived into the bowl and nearly drowned himself in the soup. Kiba watched the little dragon and suddenly his image of dragons being noble and wise creatures was shattered. Monoki pulled out her chibi fox wallet and fished out some money to pay for the ramen. She chuckled at the little dragon who was now **in** the bowl. Kiba scanned her face it was long and thin with a hint of a tan to her skin. Her nose was small but sharp and her lips where also small and where stretched back to revel perfect white teeth and suddenly he wished he could see the rest of her face. Monoki pulled her mask up to cover her lower face again and lifted the dragon on to her shoulder.

"I wasn't finished!" he complained.

"Yes you are. Bye Kiba" she said and turned and walked under the flaps. Kiba watched as she walked down the street until she turned a corner and disappeared from view. Kiba looked back into his bowl and Akamaru whined at him, but this was unnoticed. Kiba was lost in his thoughts,

* * *

Monoki got to the dorm and found the door unlocked, Takara must be home. She stepped in the door.

"Sensei? I'm here" she called and was suddenly attacked.

"I'm so glad you okay Hinata!" it was Kurenai.

"Can't…… breathe…."

"Er… Kurenai I get that you where worried about her but you don't need to suffocate her." Takara said tonelessly, and sweat dropped. Ryuu jumped off Monoki's shoulder before Kurenai glomped her.

"That's it! It's getting a little dangerous here, I'm gone!" he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Okay Kurenai seriously let her breathe!" She loosened her grip on Monoki and stepped back to look at the girl.

"Sensei?" Kurenai smiled down at her former student, she seemed to be in one piece. "You know who I am?" Monoki was a little shocked, first at her old teacher almost jumping on her and then her knowing who she really was.

"Of course I do, I wouldn't shut up after you disappeared so Tsunade-sama told me what happened just to get me to leave her alone." Kurenai chuckled. Monoki smiled and pulled her mask down and off her face and let it hang around her neck, then slipped off her dark glasses. Kurenai smiled softly and whispered,

"So is Snake Eyes taking good care of you?"

"I heard that!" Takara called from the table. Monoki nodded and the two stepped away from the doorway and returned to the table. The three talked for a while on random things, like how Monoki's training was going to how the others reacted when Monoki left and what had been happening while they were away. It got dark out side and Monoki tried to suppress a yawn but failed.

"Alright you. Bed." Takara ordered. Monoki grumbled and stated she wasn't tried, that argument was shattered when she yawned again. She reluctantly shuffled from the kitchen into the bed room, which now had two beds, and got changed into her pyjamas and crawled into bed and was soon asleep.

"Seems you are taking good care of her after all Takara, I shouldn't have doubted you." Kurenai cradled the cup of tea in her hand. "She's changed." Takara raised an eyebrow.

"How so?" she didn't really know what Hinata was like before so she couldn't really say for herself.

"She seems stronger… no she knows she's strong. Hiashi belittled her most of her life, he made her doubt her own strength and she believed herself to be weak. You have no idea what she was like before. She had no confidence in her own abilities and never believed anyone when they told her she was strong."

"All she needed was to get away from Hiashi then. She has been a good student, she works hard. You saw her yourself she doesn't stutter anymore. She's not working to the high expectations of her father and the clan anymore, she can develop at her own speed." The two remained silent for a while sipping at their drinks.

"Will you be taking her again?" Kurenai asked, Takara looked into her drink for a minute or two.

"We both know the village is not safe for Hinata, if Hiashi finds out she is still alive he will dispatch another assassin…"

"I know…"

"If Monoki wishes to be Hinata again she must reveal herself and challenge her disownment and I don't think she's ready to do that yet, although she has improved greatly she still has her doubts. But there is still something she needs to decide on…"

"What's that?"

"Weather or not she wants to be Hyuuga Hinata at all." Kurenai looked up at Takara who's face was impassive, she glanced at the bedroom door then back to the drink in her hand.

"Do you think she will challenge Hiashi?"

"I don't know, it's a choice she needs to make herself. We can't force her in this. In all honestly this is the first real life choice she will make for herself, I'm not going to force her and I don't want you to either." Kurenai glared at her over the table.

"She should have her life back Takara, that's the reason your training her so she can regain her position."

"It's true I'm training her to make her stronger but only because she asked for it, what she does with what I teach her is her choice Kurenai and with all due respect she is not your student anymore so this matter really has nothing to do with you." Takara replied forcefully, "This is Monoki's choice and I trust her to make the right choice for herself."

Kurenai glared at Takara, she had rarely been this forceful when they where younger, this wasn't the goofy tomboy she once knew all those years ago.

"You're right…" she said and broke the eye contact.

"It kills you to say that doesn't it?" Takara grinned across the table lightening the mood again.

"Yeah, but even you can be wrong all the time." Kurenai shot back.

"Heh, I missed you too Kurenai…" Takara smirked and finished her drink.

* * *

_Heehee I like Ryuu, and to answer any ques about him he is a cat sized blue Japanese dragon_

_**He's also annoying and greedy but with a yank on his whiskers he's okay.**_

_I can also picture Tenten getting way to competitive on Guitar Hero, hmm I sense a one shot…. anyway_

_Don't forget to review people! If I don't get enough reviews I won't continue!!_

_**WHAT!! REVIEW PEOPLE REVIEW!!**_


	20. Chapter 20: Fruits of Training

_Okay this one is really long, it was meant to be two chapters but I reckon I can throw these together _

_**And now the bad news**_

_Er yeah there is going to be a slight delay before the next one comes because you have finally caught up on me I have nothing else prewritten, lots of ideas thou but…_

_**She's too lazy to type it.**_

_SHUT UP!!_

* * *

**Fruits of Training**

"Come on, up!"

"No!"

"Monoki get up!"

"No! I'm comfortable!" Monoki pulled the blankets over her head and tried to block out Takara's voice.

"last chance…" Takara warned.

"Go away!!" Monoki's muffled voice called from within the folds of the thick blankets. Takara grinned evilly and grabbed the bottom corners of the blankets and wiped them off the bed.

"NO FAIR!! GIVE EM BACK" Monoki whined as the cold air rushed into sap away all warmth from the bed.

"What's up with you? Normally you're up before me?" Takara pointed out.

"That's because it's easier to get up when we're sleeping outside on the ground. A nice warm bed is another thing." Monoki yawned widely and stretched. Takara grinned at her and threw the blankets back onto the bottom of the bed.

"Come on up! If you hurry I might have something for you." Monoki scowled the sun was only just starting to rise, and it was true that they did usually get up and begin their training at this time but the bed was so warm. Then again Takara had said she'd get something and she wasn't one for empty promises. Reluctantly she got off the bed and got dressed in her training clothes, loose shorts and t-shirt and a single metal vambrace on her left forearm. She was wearing her belt with her weapons pouch clipped onto the back.

"Awake yet?" Takara called from the kitchen.

"No, I went back to bed!" she called back, she was picking up on Takara's sense of humour.

"I hope for your sake you didn't, there's a cup of tea waiting out here for you." Monoki head out into the kitchen where Takara was already sipping at a cup of tea at the low table, she was dressed in a similar manner as Monoki however her training clothes where more form fitting. Monoki sat at the table and picked up the morning tea, one of the few things Takara could make with out taking the taste from it.

"Today we'll be sparring, I want to see how you are progressing with your skills." Takara said before sipping her tea.

"And if I do well?" Monoki asked.

"We'll move on to ninjutsus as I promised I would, but that will depend on your performance today. Think you're up to it?" Takara asked with a sly grin.

"Heh, you know I am." Monoki shot back.

"We'll see…"

They wrapped up in their cowls before leaving the dorm, the morning air had a chill to it, no sense in freezing on the way to the training grounds. Takara had two boxes under her arms, one Monoki knew held the practice swords Takara had craved for her to get her used to handling weapons, but the other box was new. Monoki wondered what was in it but didn't ask, perhaps that was the surprise.

The two walked down the empty streets to wards the training grounds. It was an ungodly hour so no one with a lick of sense would be up and about at this hour, (unless you where a ninja in training). They didn't meet another person the whole way to the fields, expect for Gai out for a morning run but Monoki doubted that man ever slept. When they got to a training ground Takara tossed Monoki the wooden training swords and brought out her katana still in its sheath, she didn't want to cut Monoki. They started with slow and easy strikes to warm up, but gradually increased in speed until the clack of wood on lacquer rang out in a swift rhythm. However this was not the real fight this was an exercise they performed at the start of each session to warm up.

"Stop, that is enough of that." Takara instructed and slipped her katana back into its place in her belt loops. "Now, as I told you before, I'll be testing you're skills today and for that you'll need something a little more effective than a craved tree branch, come here." Takara beckoned Monoki over to a tree, against which lent the box from before.

"Here, consider it an early birthday present" she smiled as she pushed the box towards Monoki. Monoki opened the box eagerly and lifted away the cloth that covered the contents. Inside was a long black lacquer sheath with and intricate white vine design with two sliver rings about five inches from each end.

"Whoa…." Monoki breathed as she gently lifted the sheath from the wrappings in the box. Takara watched as she took in the designs with a shocked face, and she grinned to herself she had choose correctly.

"You like?"

"I LOVE!" she said and jumped on Takara, "Thank you sensei!" Monoki hugged Takara tightly, then quickly stepped back and blushed a bit.

"Sorry…" she muttered but Takara chucked she didn't mind. Monoki slipped the sheath into the back loops in her own belt so the sheath lay horizontally across her waist just like Takara's katana. She reached back and drew both blades, they glinted in the early morning light, they were sharp and straight, perfect blades.

"Get used to the weight, they shouldn't be much be heavier than those practice swords. Takara indicated the wooden stick's while Monoki carried out slow steady sweeps with her new toys. The swords were close to being the same weight so it didn't take long for Monoki to get used to them.

"So, ready?"

"Hai" she sheathed her twin swords.

"Okay then, put your mask on we have spectators." Takara walked past Monoki out into the open field. Monoki put on her ANBU mask before turning around to face Takara. On the hill was Lee and Gai, probably for early morning training. She chose to ignore them.

"Remember Monoki, I'll be judging your progress in this fight, so use what ever you deem necessary."

"Hai." Both adopted a tai jutsu stance and stared at each other for a minute, neither wanting to make the first move. Monoki charged forward, throwing two kunai and forcing Takara to jump into her path, she sent several punches at Takara's head and upper body, they where either blocked or dodged. Takara Ducked suddenly and swept her leg around trying to trip Monoki but she had already back flipped out of the way. Takara darted forward and tried to strike Monoki, but Monoki managed to push them away and using Takara's momentum pushed her on past and brought up her knee and tried to slam it into Takara's stomach but Takara hitched her legs off the ground and dived over Monoki's raised knee, rolling quickly to her feet Takara launched a series of kicks at Monoki. It went on like this for sometime both launched attacks that where either blocked or dodged until Takara pulled out several kunai and launched them at Monoki who back flipped out of the path of most of them and deflected the final one on her vambrace. Drawing one blade and holding it in front of herself she rushed Takara as Takara ducked her first blade Monoki quickly drew her other blade and swiped at Takara while she was crouched.

"Shit!" Focusing chakra to her feet Takara launched herself high into the air and out of reach of Monoki's blades. Monoki ran up the trunk of a nearby tree and jumped after Takara.

"Aw Crap!" Takara drew her katana and blocked the attack. Throwing Monoki's blades off she put some distance between them as they fell. Takara hit the ground first and sprinted, katana in hand, towards Monoki, and attacked with an upward slice. Monoki caught Takara's blade on her own and landing below her blade and swept at her feet, taking them out from under Takara. Takara immediately swept her legs around in Striking recovery forcing Monoki away. The two paused and watched the other over a 20 foot gap, Monoki was getting breathless and panted heavily.

"Heh, having fun yet?" Takara poked.

"Of course" she shot back.

"looks like we got a few more spectators… what ye say we stop holding back and give them a real show."

"Sounds good to me." Monoki replied as she got a better grip on her swords.

Tenten and Neji had joined their sensei and team mate on the hill and where watching the battle in the field below.

"Hey what we looking at?" Kiba asked coming up from behind them.

"Takara and Monoki are sparring but you would swear that they're trying to kill each other…" Tenten answered.

"eh?" Kiba looked down the hill and the two where punching and kicking at each other "this could get interesting…" Kiba jumped up on to a branch in a tree to get a better view. By the time they drew blades Shikamaru and Ino had shown up and where watching with interest.

"Here I come!" Takara called and ran forward holding her katana in a two handed grip. Monoki threw several kunai at the charging jonin making her deflect them with her katana. Takara skidded to a halt and the kunai bounced off her steel blade. Monoki took this chance to run to the side and throw another kunai, Takara turned just in time for the kunai to plunge into her throat. Dropping the katana she fell back.

"Holy Shit! Monoki killed her!" Shikamaru shouted in disbelief and stared at Monoki who hadn't dropped her guard, it was just the opposite she was looking around her and for good reason Takara's body disappeared in a puff of smoke as soon as it hit the ground replaced by a log, a substitution jutsu. Monoki scanned the area, suddenly she was surrounded by clones of Takara's katana.

"Dancing Blades?" Tenten said aloud. The blades headed for Monoki, there was no where for her to escape to. Each blade hit its target, Monoki stood like a human pin cushion, but this too was a substitution. The field was now empty.

"Where are they?" Lee scanned the field, trees, bushes and even looked to the lake. He couldn't see any sign of them.

"Neji, can you see them?" Gai asked.

"I'm looking…. Takara-sama is in the water…" he scanned around with his Byakugan.

"Where's Monoki?"

"I'm looking…" his vision scanned the area and found Monoki crouched in a tree, she was looking at the lake, she knew Takara was there. Suddenly she straightened up, suddenly alert, her head turned slowly to look directly at Neji. She knew he was looking at her! Neji involuntarily took a step back, Monoki continued to stare at him for a moment and drew a kunai and pointed it towards him, the message clear, 'stop watching me'. Neji deactivated his Byakugan, and his dislike of Monoki turned to fear, how did she know he was watching her, her position completely blocked her view of them on the hill, so how? Takara rose up from the lake and stood on its surface, _okay so I can't hold my breath __**that **__long, _as soon as she appeared Monoki charged across the surface of the water and the two went at it again, darting across the surface of the water, the sound of their swords clashing echoed across the lake. Monoki managed to knock Takara's katana from her hands but before she could attack again Takara delivered several quick and sharp blows, to her stomach, thighs, shoulders and finally the head. These strikes stunned Monoki and she fell through the water when her chakra dissipated. Takara fished her out of the water.

"I think this fight is over…" Takara grinned and sheathed her blade.

"Hai…" Monoki agreed and regained her footing on the water and sheathed her twin swords. Takara continued to grin as she led the way back to shore.

"Sensei, you're limping." Monoki said as she followed Takara.

"Meh it's just a cramp, it'll be fine in a minute." Takara waved it off and walked on.

"So how did I do?" Monoki asked.

"Better than I thought…"

"HEY!"

"I said better didn't I? and I will admit you used some impressive moves. I think we can move on to the next phase of your training." Monoki beamed behind her mask.

"Thanks Takara-sensei."

"I thought you were to spar with me today Takara." Gai called as the two came to the shore.

"Gimme ten minutes and you'll get your match Gai, don't worry." Takara said and rotated her left foot a bit, it gave a soft pop then she could stand on it again.

"So tell me Gai, what's been happening in the village?" the two adults chatted about recent events and old times but the genin (and Shikamaru) ignored them.

"Hey Monoki that was pretty cool" Ino said coming up to her.

"Thanks!!" Monoki grinned widely but none of the others saw it due to the ANBU mask. Neji kept his distance, he had tried to look past the mask with his Byakugan but it seemed the mask itself was infused with chakra meaning he couldn't see past it, not clearly anyway.

_Why does she have to wear that mask! It's making me nervous, I'm outta here… _"If Gai-sensei is too preoccupied to train me I will return to Hiashi-sama." Neji said in his usual toneless voice.

"Damit Neji sometimes you're so rude!" Tenten called after him. "Don't mind him Monoki he's not really the social type." Monoki said nothing.

"Hey can I see your blades?" Tenten asked getting excited again. It took a moment for Monoki to decipher what she said.

"Huh…ano sure." Monoki drew one blade with a flick of her wrist and handing the hilt to Tenten, who showed off by flicking it around. The others chatted but Monoki watched Neji leave. He was the one person she didn't want to see her fighting, it was lucky she had her Byakugan active and spotted him because she was almost about to get into a gentle fist stance. It was a habit she would have to break. Even when Takara was teaching her tai jutsu styles she would often fall back into the stance in the middle of a fight or even combine the two stances with out noticing it. Another thing was if he tired to look through her mask. She had worried about this since the day before after she ran into him. Knowing how his eyes worked was an advantage. Neither of them could see through solid blocks of chakra, at least no details so the night before she infused her masks with chakra so much so that the mask was almost tingly to the touch. At least knowing that they couldn't be seen through made her feel a little safer.

"Monoki…. Monoki…. HEY!"

"Huh?" Monoki came back to the present as someone touched her shoulder, it was Lee.

"What's up?"

"Your tai-jutsu is impressive, would you allow me to spar with you later, once you have rested of course" he added quickly.

"ano… yeah okay." It would be a good benchmark to gauge her real progress against.

"Monoki! Catch!" Takara threw her katana, sheath and all at her, and she caught it. Tenten immediately asked to see it.

"Hell, I'm not allowed to unsheathe it so…" Monoki started but was interrupted by Takara shouting over to them

"No Tenten." Tenten huffed a little and continued to play with one of Monoki's short swords.

"Looks like their ready to fight… I got 20 on Takara" Shikamaru said and sat to watch the fight.

"I'll take that bet! Gai-sensei will win for sure!" Lee said never doubting his mentor. Kiba whipped out a notebook and played bookie and took bets from the others, by this time Chouji, Sakura and Shino had appeared, while making a good profit for himself.

"Monoki what you say?", she was quiet for a minute.

"30 on Takara" she said and handed Kiba the cash and he jotted down the bet. Monoki glanced at the book the bets where spread half and half. Gai and Takara faced each other, Gai was warming up a bit by punching and kicking air.

"Remember Takara this is tai-jutsu only…"

"I don't know what your insinuating Gai…" Takara said innocently with a smirk which Gai returned.

"The score was 26 to 26 when you left, lets see if we can break that tie after seven years!"

"You kept count… for… seven years…" Takara sweat dropped.

"Hai, I never forget a challenge!" He replied.

"You normally started them…" Takara muttered.

"There you are!" Asuma called to his team as he came up the hill, "What's this?"

"Gai-sensei and Takara-sensei are going to fight." Answered Ino, Asuma raised an eyebrow and team 10 prepared to be shouted at for dodging training.

"Really?" Asuma looked down the hill, he lit his cigarette and got comfortable on the grass. "These are always good to watch." Team 10 shrugged and sat back down, of he wasn't going to shout or drag them to training they would stay put.

"Care to place a bet?" Kiba smirked knowing that Asuma was a gambler.

"Are you ready yet?" Takara asked, Gai was taking his sweet time.

"Yosh, let's see if you have kept your youthful sprit Takara!" He said getting into a tai-jutsu stance, Takara slapped her forehead and dragged her hand down her face.

"Plleeaaaaasssseeee stop talking like that" she said, Gai didn't reply, "Come on then." She said getting into a matching stance. Gai was first to attack and rushed her with a quick series of punches and kicks, and with some fancy foot work Takara bounced backwards, meaning he lost his momentum advantage, and blocked the attacks. Takara retaliated with her own strikes and got Gai with a powerful upper cut to the chin. He staggered back but recovered in time to block her lunge for his exposed chest. The two exchanged blows, for a while but it one attack combo Gai forced Takara against a tree, she tried to dodge but his kick caught her arm and it smacked against the tree, the force of Gai's kick mean he continued on and Takara's fore arm bent back.

Everyone on the hill, expect Asuma and Monoki, filched.

"Ohhhhhh that's gotta hurt, but I thought this wasn't a serious fight…" Kiba said.

"I know but he just broke her arm…" Ino shuddered.

"Keep watching…" Asuma said lighting another cigarette.

Takara swiped at Gai with her other arm and forced him back.

"You just had to didn't you?" she said looking at the bend in her arm halfway between her elbow and wrist.

"Yup" he grinned. Takara shook her head, then gave her 'broken' arm and violent shake as if to get something off of it, the arm flopped about for a second then seemed to 'heal', her arm was straight again. Takara and Gai continued the match without any further delay.

"Gross!" Ino called.

"What was that?" Sakura asked.

"No, matter how many times I see that it still makes me uneasy…" Monoki said.

"Seen what?" Chouji asked, after swallowing a mouth full of crisps.

"That is another talent of the Royki blood line. The only solid bone in Takara's body is her skull, the rest is made up of small spine-like segments. Normally they lie close together and give the illusion of one bone but they can become spaced out making her limbs as flexible as a snake, she can move her limbs in almost any direction at any point along the limb, in other words it's impossible to break a Royki's bones." Monoki explained

"Heh, she's the reason they stopped putting stuff on the bottom shelf in the vending machines in the academy… and she used it to get out of stuff like plays and boring missions, she used to fake a fight with Gai and he would 'accidentally break' her leg. It always worked until her dad caught her doing it to dodge a trash clearing D mission." Asuma laughed to himself as he remembered these old tricks, he and Gai greatly benefited from the from the vending machine robberies, they would keep watch for teachers or other students while she raided the chosen items from the bottom shelf with her multiple jointed arm, they never were caught.

The fight continued below, Takara had activated her Serpents Gaze and had loosened up her arms making them more flexible, it also seemed to increase her speed. The fight picked up a pace and more and more hits where being landed. The match was ended with two strikes. Gai managed to slip past her defence and aimed a punch at her face, Takara tried to bring up her leg to push him away. Gai's punch struck her right on the chin and she jerked backwards and her leg raised higher than she intended and struck him right between the legs. Both fell back clutching the struck areas, Gai's mouth was open in a scream so high pitched it was silent and Takara was cupping her mouth and chin. She sat up still holding her face and looked at Gai.

"Same as always then?" she panted through her fingers.

"Yeah" Gai answered in a very high squeaky voice.

"Sorry…" she mumbled.

"Me too…" Gai was curled up in the foetal position and didn't seem able to move.

On the hill every guy flinched in a half move to cover their own areas. Asuma grinned to himself.

"A draw" the others groaned loudly, having all lost their bets.

"Kiba pay up!" Asuma held out his hand to the boy, he had been the only one to bet draw, meaning he won the lot.

"Aw no fair you knew this was gonna happen!!"

"Just gimme the money before I confiscate it all. They always draw anyway."

"okay okay…" he handed over the cash but still got a good profit.

"Should Gai's face be purple?"

It turned out Gai wasn't able to walk up right for a while, and Takara's lip was swollen and split (but was quickly healed by Sakura the medic in training.)

"So Gai, we're still on the same level then?"

"Looks like it," Asuma answered for him, it seemed he wouldn't be able to speak for a while.

"HA! Gai-sensei is so cool!" Lee shouted

"Lee… he didn't win…" Tenten pointed out flatly

"Hai, but he didn't lose either!" he called enthusiastically. The others just shook their heads at him.

"you okay sensei?" Monoki crouched down next to Takara and handed back her katana.

"yeah, I'm fine, is my lip still bleeding?"

"No, it's okay, so you always draw with Gai?" She asked. Takara answered quietly

"Only, because it stops him ranting on about meaningless challenges…" Monoki narrowed her eyes, she didn't believe that. "Speaking of challenges did I hear you accept a fight with … ano… Gai's…. little clone kid…" She couldn't remember his name.

"Yeah, I reckon it would be a good work out." Monoki said cheerfully.

"Hai it would be interesting to fight against a new opponent." Monoki found lee behind her warming up in a similar manner than Gai. They walked to the field, away from the others.

"Monoki! Remember watch your stance!" Takara called, Monoki gave a half salute and pressed her fox mask more securely to her face. Gai tried to shout some advice to Lee but still hadn't found his voice so he gave a wobbly smile and a thumbs up.

"Any bets on this one?" Kiba chanced. The others glared at him slightly, then Gai handed him 50 bucks on Lee, Takara chuckled and matched the bet on Monoki, Asuma considered the situation and bet on another draw. The others soon found they had more to bet, Kiba scribbled down the bets and again pocketed a good profit for himself.

"Are you prepared Monoki-san?" Lee questioned standing in his usual stance,

"Waiting for you Lee-san" she mimicked his respectful address. Lee always was an honourable sort she liked him for that.

Like his mentor like charged forward first, Monoki came forward to meet him and they exchanged blows before Monoki, nearly getting overpowered, she back flipped out of his reach. Lee was physically stronger than her, she would have to be careful about that. Lee jumped after her, Monoki dodged backward with the style Takara taught her.

"Anyone else getting a feeling of devaju?" Chouji asked.

"Their styles, stances even their attacks are very similar to their respective teachers" Shino said, he had been so quiet some people had forgotten he was there.

"Er… Kiba, is it too late to change my bet to a draw?"

Monoki faked an attack at Lee's head and he attempted to block it but at the last minute she dropped to a crouch and swept his legs out from under him. Lee landed on his back and immediately rolled himself back onto his hands and into an all too familiar move. She managed to duck the initial handstand spin of Striking Recovery but not the round house kick, it got her right on the side of her head. Lee's foot caught her mask and it was torn from her face and landed several feet away.

"SHIT!" Takara's eyes widened as she watched the mask fall almost in slow motion. Monoki snapped her head around to face Lee square on. His jaw dropped as did the jaws of the spectators on the hill. Kiba pointed dumbly and tried to force out words but shock at what they now looking at had snatched his and everyone else's ability to speak in complete sentences.

"Impossible!"

"It can't be…!"

"She's …"

* * *

_Yes I know it's a cruel hanger but…. It keeps u interested._

_**That and you just evil**_

_Yup, Also the vending machine joke was inspirited by one in my work place from which it is extremely easy to steal from, but now they stopped putting stuff on the bottom shelf heehee_

_**I still think its funny though any way read and review please and thank you**_

_And just outta idle curiosity tell me how you came across this story_


	21. Chapter 21: Movie Night

_Okay Okay, so that was unfair to loyal followers of the story, so due to high demand (and a couple of threats…) I scribbled this down for you_

_**Threats? Who would threaten you I wonder… (looks innocent)**_

_Gee I wonder… (glares at Takara) so away enjoy now I really gotta get back to writing this thing…._

* * *

**Movie Night**

"Blind!" Shikamaru stammered.

Monoki was facing Lee her entire face was covered with the Kakashi style mask, even her eyes and forehead. Lee stared at the covered face, how was this possible? Monoki seized her chance and darted at him, his shock slowed his reactions but he only just managed to jump over her. Monoki skidded to a halt and flipped after him, catching up with him midair and continuing to fight.

"How is that possible?" Gai said, Takara crossed her arms and quickly wiped the shocked look from her own face. Gai swung his head around to face his old friend.

"Is she blind?"

"It's a subject Monoki doesn't like to discuss, if she wants anyone to know she'll tell them herself in her own time." Takara said coolly, it bought her time to think of an excuse. _That was smart Monoki I didn't even notice you bring that mask._ The fight below continued on. Lee had been completely thrown off the fight when Monoki's mask was taken off and now found it had to regain his rhythm and Monoki was fast soon she had the advantage. No matter where he went she followed, how could she follow him? She can't see!

"That's it…" Lee had an idea, she was listening his heavy landings and panting where giving him away. He landed intentionally hard to her right then sprang over her head to land soundlessly behind her and held his breath. Monoki had darted to where he landed first then turned to look around. Lee stood still, not breathing.

"_It worked!_" he thought and praised himself on his genius.

"What are you doing?" she asked

"_It is a trick, don't answer"_ he said nothing and continued to hold his breath.

"Lee?" she asked, when he didn't answer she walked calmly over towards him Lee continued to stay still and silent, _she's guessing_. She walked past him he grinned, that was until she grabbed both his wrists pulled them behind his back kicked the back of his knees and held him in that position.

"Give up?" she asked into his ear. Lee let out his held breath and looked at her.

"Don't look so shocked." She said and let him go, the mask crinkled in a grin.

"I believe you owe me some money there Kiba" Takara grinned and held out her hand. Kiba counted out the money to the winners as Monoki came up the hill putting her fox mask back on.

"Very nice kid" Takara said to her student and tossed her back her twin swords. Monoki caught them and put them back onto her belt.

"Thanks" Lee was still gapping as he came up the hill behind her.

"Monoki come here a minute" Takara beckoned her away from the others then lent it to whisper.

"Because of that they think your blind, when they asked about it I just said it was something you didn't like to talk about so leave it at that for now while we try and think of something."

"talk about thinking fast, okay sounds good" Monoki nodded.

"Well if it wasn't good at thinking on my feet you would be here now would you and hiding your face completely and using Byakugan was a very good idea." Takara said playfully and ruffled Monoki's hair.

"I hate it when you do that" Monoki said as she tried to brush her hair back into place.

"Which is why I do it" Takara grinned and the two headed back to the group. It was now mid morning and Asuma pulled his team off to do their training, Gai sent Tenten to fetch Neji again and to meet them at Lee's dojo as usual, Kiba and Shino stayed in that general area near the lake. Lee had just run off to the dojo but Gai hung back a bit and caught Takara's eye.

"What's up Gai?"

"Do you have any thing planned for lunch later? It just that my team and I usually head to the Koran BBQ place on Saturdays and maybe you and Monoki would join us."

"Meh, why not? What time you going at?"

"Normally about oneish." Gai shrugged lightly. Takara glanced at her watch it was 10:47.

"Alright, two hours, we'll meet you at the steps leading back to the town at one. Je ne Gai" Takara smiled walked down the hill calling Monoki as she went. Gai smiled to himself, he had meant to ask that the day before, except the real version was just him and her at a quiet restaurant but he got nervous, this was good enough. Now he just had to convince his team to play along with the pretence that they really did eat out for lunch after training on weekends.

"Right as I said we'll beginning work on ninjutsu's soon so I wanna see how your chakra control is going." Takara began, both her and Monoki where standing on the lake. "So gimme a 50 flip straight."

"50! Ah come on…" Monoki grumbled to herself as she gathered charka to her hands and feet.

"right go and count out" Takara told her. When Monoki was ready she started doing back flips across the surface of the water and every time her hands touched the water she shouted out the count.

"1…2 …3…4 …" she kept on until at 40 Takara called

"Alternate!" Up until now Monoki had a fixed amount of chakra focused into both her hands and feet, this exercise increased her chakra control limit, meaning she could focus it to different parts of her body for prolonged lengths of time, the last ten flips where different she would have to release and refocus the chakra on her hands and feet meaning only one at a time had chakra built up in it, and do it quickly enough so she didn't fall in the water.

"46… 47… 48… 49… AGGGH!! This waters freezing!!!!" she shouted as she pulled herself out of the water.

"Nine, that's your best yet. You're getting a lot faster."

"Yeah but I'm still wet…" She muttered as she squeezed the water from her hair. The wet clothes clung to her skin and she muttered to herself she walked back to shore with Takara following behind smirking, returning to the tree where she had left the boxes and a small bag, she pulled a towel from the bag and chucked it to Monoki.

* * *

"What was that about?" Kiba asked Shino, they where still nearby, it was Kurenai-sensei's day off and although they where meant to be training they decided they would have a day off too, it was normally Hinata who convinced them to continue their training but with her gone both boys (and puppy) lacked motivation. However if they left the training grounds it was more than likely they would run into their sensei, it had happened before. So the two lazed about and watched the other teams. Kiba had found his gaze drifting to Takara and Monoki on the lake and he watched as Monoki back flipped around the lake, Takara shouted something and she fell in soon after. 

"I don't know… chakra training perhaps" Shino intoned in his abnormally deep voice. Before returning to his book and paying no further heed to the others. Akamaru curled up in Kiba's lap for a little nap and Kiba kept watching the nearby pair at the lake because he had nothing better to do and he didn't want to disturb Akamaru. His eyes widened as Monoki stripped off her soaked baggy t-shirt, under which was a small blue sleeveless tank top, which showed off her arms and midriff. She squeezed out as much water as she could from the top and hung in onto a branch to dry out, then taking the towel from Takara gave her hair a quick dry and her arms and legs, even titled the mask up to wipe her face but his view of that was blocked by the towel. As Kiba watched he suddenly became aware that his nose was starting to bleed, he quickly stemmed the flow before it was noticed by anyone else.

* * *

"Okay how about we start with something simple? You can already to transformations and the other basic stuff so Dancing blades, since you already have the weapon skills with the sword. It is a simple technique and you should be able to pick it up quickly." Takara talked her through the actions until she was ready to try it. 

"hang on…"

"What?" Monoki asked, Takara took her sword from her and handed her the wooden practice one.

"just in case…"

"Oh thanks for the vote of confidence."

The rest of the morning was spent with going over the basics of ninjutsu's with Monoki until about half 12 in the afternoon.

"Alright that's enough for now."

"Why, what's going on?" Monoki was suspicious because Takara never ended a training session early if anything she tried to drag them out as long as possible.

"We've been invited to lunch."

"Nice. Wait by who?"

"Gai's team, come on we're gonna meet them at the steps leading back to the main village. Grab that box will ya." Monoki put back on her now dry tee-shirt and grabbed the training sword box and threw it into the one her twin swords came in. Takara lifted the towel bag and they headed back to the village.

"So explain to me again why we're here?" Tenten asked Gai while they waited at the top of the steps.

"We're meeting up with some one for lunch." Gai said looking down the steps and then to his watch.

"Who?" asked Neji, in his usual sour tone.

"Takara and Monoki, I'll bet." Said Tenten under her breath, no one heard her.

"Waiting for us?" the voice came from the top of the stairs. They looked up and there was the two at the top of the stairs. "Sorry, we had to go get changed." Takara gave a closed eyed smile and wave. Takara was dressed in long blue jeans and a red short sleeved tee-shirt. Monoki was dressed in jeans as well, although baggy, along with a black baggy tee-shirt, she had on her Kakashi style mask along with the dark glasses and her green beni hat. She raised a hand in greeting to Tenten, Gai and Lee, she blatantly ignored Neji. Gai grinned at Takara and started up the steps.

"Well then shall we go to lunch?" His little grin didn't go unnoticed by Tenten or Monoki.

"Lead the way" Takara stepped to the side to let him past and fell into step beside him. Tenten, Lee and Monoki followed behind Neji reluctantly followed and he watched Monoki from the corner of his eyes. Tenten had told him about the fight with Lee if he understood her right Monoki was blind, so how was she able to see him watching her in the tree. He didn't know and he really didn't want to know, he just wanted away from her.

"You know what, I not hungry, I'll see you two later." He said plainly to Tenten and Lee before turning and walking away.

"Damn it Neji, you could at least try to be nice!!" Tenten shouted after him.

"What's his problem?" Monoki asked.

"You know, I really don't know anymore. I mean Neji was always a bit sour but he used to be able to take a joke… but ever since…"

"Since what?"

"Remember we told you about Hinata? Well she was Neji's cousin and he hasn't been the same since then, he won't tell us about what's bothering him."

"Really?" Monoki wondered did her disappearance really cause **that** much of a change in the Hyuuga's? They walked the rest of the way in silence. When they got there they got their seats and ordered a meal. Tenten once again tried to start up another conversation between the genin because the adults where not paying attention.

"Hey Monoki, me and the rest of the gang where planning a movie night in the flat later on. You up for it?" she asked before chomping on the meat from her chopsticks.

"Sounds good, what time you guys planning it for?" Monoki had a small plate of meat and salad, which seemed to shrink in size when ever Tenten wasn't looking, and the bottom line of her mask kept moving to different places on her neck. How was she doing that?

"first movie rolls at nine… I'm gonna be there at around eight. Can you remember where the flat is?"

"Yeah, I remember. Sensei?" Takara looked around at Monoki with a thoughtful expression. Then she shrugged.

"Alright go ahead. With you busy with your new friends I don't think we'll get much training done."

"And you catching up on old ones…" Monoki replied with a raised eyebrow and a chuckle in her voice.

"Well… yeah okay then…." Takara replied with a smile.

* * *

"Alright all set! I claim the beanbag!" shouted Tenten dragging the beanbag to in front of the TV on the ground.

"You always get the beanbag!" Whined Kiba and helped lee push the second sofa to a better spot in front of the TV.

"Then its mine!" she grinned evilly and placed her stash of sweets next to the beanbag.

knock knock

"You hear something?"

"Was that a knock?"

"Sure we all have keys who'd be knocking?"

"Monoki! I'll get it" Sakura jumped over the sofa Kiba and Lee where moving to get the door. Monoki came in with a shopping bag.

"I brought munchies!" she said happily

"Alright!" called Chouji. Soon everything was ready, snacks and drinks where claimed, seats chosen and lights dimmed. On one sofa was Ino, Shikamaru (of course) and Chouji on the other was Sakura, Kiba and Monoki, Lee had stretched out on the floor and Tenten was on the low beanbag in front of the two sofa's and Akamaru had got quite comfortable on Monoki's lap, the puppy was bigger than she remembered. Shino and Neji weren't there, Shino was with his father on a mission and Neji really didn't want to be there. The first was an action movie, but it didn't really hold Sakura's attention, she didn't really like these types of films. She looked around, everyone else was into the movie except one. Kiba's eyes kept darting to his right towards Monoki, and other thing, if Monoki was blind how could she be watching the movie? Sakura pondered this for a while.

"Hey Monoki, you've got the DVD case, what do ya call the actor who plays Han?" Monoki lifted the cover and flipped it over to read the back.

"Ano… Po Chang…" she read aloud, then went back to the film. So she can read, she's not completely blind

After the film ended with a ridiculously large explosion and a cheesy pun, they turned up the lights and cleared up the rubbish in preparation for the second film and for a much needed bathroom break.

"Hey Ino." Sakura nudged the blond and nodded her head in the direction of the living room.

"Huh?" Ino looked around there was Shikamaru talking with Chouji, Tenten, Kiba and Monoki. (Lee was in the toilet) But what had caught Sakura's and now Ino's eyes was that Kiba's eyes didn't leave Monoki, except when she looked in him or Chouji who was seated beside him.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Hee Hee. Match maker" both chuckled evilly but stopped quickly when they drew strange looks from the living room.

"What are you two doing?" Monoki asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing" they both chimed grinning.

"Did I miss something?" asked Lee coming back in to the living room.

The next film was a mystery with a very predictable storyline. Every one claimed the same seating positions. Monoki who didn't move at all was still on the end on the sofa with Kiba in the middle and Sakura on the other end. On the second sofa was Ino with Shikamaru's arm around her shoulders then Chouji. Lee was again on the floor after Tenten forcibly removed him from her beanbag chair. Sakura tucked her legs under herself on the sofa and leant on Kiba's shoulder, he scowled and shrugged her off. However when Monoki did the same thing later he didn't move. Sakura smirked she knew it. The Movie was so predictable it was a bit boring and it was late, Lee dozed off on the ground, Ino fell asleep laying across Shikamaru's lap and Monoki dozed off on Kiba's shoulder. Chouji flicked on the light when the film ended, Ino shielded her eyes and dug deeper into Shikamaru's jacket and Tenten poked Lee in the side with her toe repeatedly until he stirred and glared at her with one eye. Kiba had just noticed that the girl on his shoulder was asleep.

"What are you doing?" asked Shikamaru as he spotted Kiba reaching for her dark glasses.

"Ssh I wanna see!" Ino nudged him and sat up to get a better view.

"Don't dude…" Chouji said and shook his head, Kiba ignored him. Monoki's breathing was still slow and steady, Kiba gulped and reached slowly up and hooked his finger over the bridge of her glasses and started slipping them down.

"No…" Monoki said sternly without opening her eyes or moving. Everyone jumped at her sudden bark and Kiba quickly withdrew his hand. Monoki pushed up her glasses and sat up.

"Don't. Touch. The. Glasses." She said and with each word she poked Kiba on the forehead.

"I told you…" Chouji said and chomped down some crisps. Sakura tried to read Monoki's expression to try find a way out of the awkward silence, but with the mask covering her face and glasses over her eyes all she had was her eyebrows. Sakura prided herself in being able to guess Kakashi's expression with just his eye and outline of a face on his mask, but Monoki was completely different. The silence was broken by Ino, being forward as usual.

"Hey Monoki why do you hide your eyes?" she blurted out.

"It's something I really don't wanna talk about Ino…" she said sadly and turned her face to the floor.

"Oh…. Okay then… But what about your face?" Ino charged right on. Tenten wanted to reach for her, if she kept this up she'd end up insulting Monoki and she won't hang out with them anymore.

"That's a different matter, my face is covered for a reason and I can't show it until I live up to my clans name, and that's something I hope to do soon!" Monoki said with a cheerful tone the mask crinkled slightly as she smiled. Everyone noted that Monoki's face and eyes where a taboo in conversations just like Shino's glasses and the word 'fat' around Chouji.

The gang chatted on until well after midnight, after making fun of the films, chatting on random things and preventing Tenten from turning on Guitar Hero, they decided it was time to head home. Out on the street they all headed off in different directions. Shikamaru, Monoki, Chouji and Sakura headed along the same road. Chouji was the first to say goodnight and go off on his own.

"Damn… looks like mom waited up to scold me for staying out late again… how troublesome…" Shikamaru sighed as he saw the lights on in his houses window.

"Aren't you a bit old to be scolded by your mother?" Monoki asked

"Well she says as long as I live under her roof I gotta live by her rules… sigh" the two girls chuckled at him.

"It's not like you listen to her anyway…"said Sakura.

"Yeah, your more likely to sneak off and watch clouds and daydream" Monoki chuckled and Shikamaru just grunted an agreement but Sakura stopped mid-laugh. How did Monoki know about his habit, she had only known him for two days, less even and that topic had never come up in any conversations.

"Oh, here I guess we forgot to give you this earlier…" Shikamaru drew his hand from his pocket and tossed a key ring to her. It was a little fuzzy fox key ring with a single key. "The key ring was Lee's idea… anyway we've agreed your part of the group now so you may as well have a key to the flat."

"Thanks Shikamaru, Sakura." She said to the two, Shikamaru gave his usual lazy smile and Sakura who looked distracted gave an uneasy smile.

"Well anyway, I'm back this way so I'll see you later" she jerked her thumb over her shoulder and after they said their goodnights the three headed in different directions but before she got far Monoki could have swore she heard a raised woman's voice in a scolding tone.

The dorm was empty when she got there. Monoki recalled that Takara had gone out with a couple of old friends earlier that night, including Kurenai who winked knowingly at Monoki before she and the others left. Monoki headed for bed and was aware that at some stage during the night Takara came home and shuffled into her own bed.

_End Chapter 21_

* * *

_I don't care what you say Ino and Shikamaru are together in this fic!! But we not focusing on them so don't hassle me about it please._

_**No offense to you shikatam fans but this just works for this one**_

_So are was happy with the results hee hee Well thoughts, comments, predictions?_

_**What she means is read and review, please and thank you**_

_**Also next update won't be till next weekend, sorry folks but she has to write it first.**_


	22. Chapter 22: Monoki’s Secret Reveled

_(yawn) well its late but I did it for you here's the next chapter, if the title isn't enough to peak you're interest we get to find out what happens in Suna in two months heehee_

_**This better not be a cliff hanger!**_

* * *

**Monoki's Secret Reveled**

The next morning was more pleasant than the one before as the two women had a long lie in, as it was Sunday, and Takara didn't get to bed until about five in the morning. When Monoki woke it was nearly mid morning, but she wasn't complaining. She looked over to the other bed, Takara was still sound asleep, Monoki thought of pulling the blankets off her for a change but she would more than likely pay for it later in training, so she decided to just let sleeping sensei's lie. Monoki stepped out of the bed room and was meet in the living room by a smell of sake and the sight of Gai sprawled out on the living room floor, snoring loudly. Monoki slowly backed up to the bed room door.

"Sensei…"

"…."

"Sensei…." Still no answer.

"Takara!"

"What?" Takara's head emerged from the blankets with only one eye open and face twisted in a why-the-fuck-you-wake-me-for scowl.

"Why is Gai asleep on the floor?"

"Because he fell off the sofa" Takara replied bluntly and reburied her head in the warm blankets.

"okay, I'll try that again… why is Gai asleep here?"

"Because he insisted on walking me back then passed out as he was about to go home and I wasn't going to carry the drunken fool all the way across town to his house."

"Okkkaaayyyy then…. Listen I'm outta here I'll see you later" the only response she got was Takara's hand giving her a lazy thumbs up before sinking back into the blankets. Monoki shook her head got dressed and headed out the door after giving Gai and experimental poke and got no response. Monoki was in the mood for ramen.

* * *

Something bugged Sakura the whole night about Monoki, Sure enough she was a nice kid, she was funny, spoke easily enough to Sakura and the rest of the group, and in truth she liked her. However there were certain things Sakura couldn't shake.

1) She hid her face and eyes (but then again so did Kakashi, so that wasn't so bad)

2) She could fight and keep up with Lee with her eyes covered, but she could read so she wasn't relying on hearing during that fight, she could see.

3) She seemingly knew her way around the town even though she lived in a clan village in the hills outside the town most of her life.

4) She knew certain things about the group that Sakura was convinced they never told her about

Then fifth and most important, Neji avoided her like the plague.

"Sakura! Hey are you listening to me!?" Ino called to her and nudged her shoulder.

"huh… oh sorry Ino, what you say?" Ino exhaled sharply and rolled her eyes.

"Kami, don't you listen! Well it's oblivious that Kiba likes Monoki, so we gotta work out a way to get those two together."

"Not again…" Moaned Shikamaru, who was laying on his back on the grass next to Ino.

"And what's that meant to mean?" She said turning on him.

"It's just that you failed miserably at trying to get Neji and Tenten together so why not just leave these two alone as well" he said as he propped himself up on his elbows to look at Ino.

"And why would I do that" she scowled slightly.

"Because…" he said stretching out again, "if he likes her as much as you think he'll make his own move on his own."

"But that never works!" Ino whined.

"And why not? It worked for us…" he smirked his Shikamaru smirk.

"Yeah but… if… screw you and your logic" she said and crossed her arms in a huff.

"Heh… it's why you love me" he said off handedly.

"True…"she said and lay beside him.

"Well if you two are going to be all couplely I'm getting outta here." Sakura pushed herself off the ground and brushed off the dust.

"I gotta go to Tsunade-sama now anyway. See you two later… that is if you don't suffocate each other." She said as the two on the ground were kissing. Sakura rolled her eyes and walked off. Her mind on her own thoughts.

* * *

Monoki had got her ramen as a take out, she didn't want to risk bumping into some one else she knew without her mask. So with take out in hand she headed to the park and perched herself in a shady tree. It was a Sunday, almost everyone had the day off from training. Monoki finished her meal and leant back on the tree with her legs dangling over the sides of the branch. It was nice and warm and Monoki had no intention of moving any time soon.

* * *

"Lee! For the last time I'm not going to spent my Sunday helping you to find Gai!!"

"But Tenten he did not show up for our training this morning! Something must be wrong, he might be hurt or…"

"On a mission!" Tenten quickened her pace to try and get away from him.

"He never mentioned it to me…" Lee muttered and quickened his own pace to match Tenten.

"Lee leave me aloAAGGHHH" Tenten who wasn't watching where she was walking tripped over something on the ground, and that something shouted in protest.

"Oi get off!!" It was Shikamaru, cloud watching as usual.

"Sorry Shikamaru" Tenten said as she got off him, a tree nearby laughed. Tenten being her usual self whipped out her scroll and summoned a kunai which she promptly threw at the tree.

"AGH!" Monoki darted her head to the side to dodge the kunai but her jerky movement meant she over balanced and fell out of the tree and hit the ground with a thud.

"Eh?" the three on the ground looked over at the tree from which Monoki fell down from.

"Hey guys" she waved and got to her feet dusting herself off and rubbing her shoulder she walked over to them.

"Why were you in a tree?" Shikamaru asked.

"Why not? It was peaceful." She shrugged

"I suppose. So anyone got plans for today?" Tenten asked sitting on the ground.

"Sitting on my ass…" answered Monoki

"Waiting for Ino" answered Shikamaru

"Gonna look for Gai-Sensei" this of course was Lee's answer

"Hell I know where he is." Monoki told him also sitting down crossed legged on the ground.

"WHERE!" Lee shouted

"Flipping hell!! Calm down!" Monoki said almost falling back "He stayed at me and Takara's place because he got drunk and passed out last night."

"There you see that sound's just like Gai" said Tenten "Wait why was he at Takara's?" she asked.

"I really don't know, but Takara seemed really pissed off at him though." Monoki said and raised her hand to wave at someone walking towards the group.

"Hey Ino!" she called, Ino who had to run a few errands returned to the park to meet with her boyfriend.

"Hey" she looked at Monoki with an evil grin.

"Ok what's with the look?"

"Is all the clothes you got baggy?" Ino poked.

"What's wrong with my clothes!?" Monoki said defensively, plucking at her baggy loose fitting t-shirt.

"That's what's wrong, there're all too loose, you should get something a little more… fitting…"

"Why?" She asked

"So you'll be noticed by the boys."

"And what, pray tell, makes you think I want some boys chasing after me?" Monoki asked pushing up her glasses.

"Don't all girls?" asked Ino and sat beside Shikamaru and flicking her blond ponytail.

"Not really…" answered Tenten. Ino pouted for not getting support for her argument.

"Besides, I already have a guy in mind" Monoki said.

"Oh who!?" asked Ino.

"Now that would be telling, wouldn't it" she said with a chuckle in her voice. Ino huffed but before she could probe any further their conversation was cut short by a little blue bullet hitting Monoki on the back of the head.

"OW!" Monoki gripped the sore spot on her head, the projectile was on the ground moaning in pain.

"DAMNIT RYUU!! That hurt!" she scooped up the dragon to check he was okay.

"hey, Monoki… didn't know you had a twin…" he said as his little eyes rolled about in his head.

"Dam dragon, you're seeing double, you really have to learn to stop flying into things." She muttered. Ryuu shook his little head to regain focus.

"Takara wants you…" he said while clutching a large bump forming on his scaly head.

"Why?"

"I dunno, I think she said it was time to go"

"Go? Damn already?" Monoki whined.

"What's going on?" Tenten asked.

"looks like me and Takara are leaving again…"

"Yup, so get your butt back to the dorm." Ryuu said and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Monoki sighed and pushed herself off the ground.

"Well suppose I'd better get over there. I'll see you guys when I see you. Ja ne" she waved and headed off the four on the ground waved and shouted bye.

Monoki got back to the dorm to find Takara scowling at Gai who was sitting on the sofa with an ice pack to his head.

"You drink far too much Gai" she scolded.

"And I'm paying for it now, gyhhhh" he moaned. Monoki tried not to laugh at his comical face.

"Oh there you are… go on then get your stuff together, we gotta get going again." Takara nodded towards the bedroom while she cleaned up the mess in the kitchen before they left. Monoki packed her stuff and by the time she came back out of the room Gai was gone and Takara was waiting with her Jonin jacket on, katana in belt and rucksack on the ground next to the door.

"Ready?" she asked. Monoki shouldered her pack slipped her sheath into her own belt loops and nodded. They left the dorm and locked the door before heading down the streets towards the main gates of the village. Sakura was at the gate fetching a report for Tsunade.

"Hey Monoki, oh, are you leaving?" she asked seeing the packs

"Yeah, but I'll be back soon enough."

"Monoki! Takara-sensei!" someone called them from behind they both turned in time to be blinded by a flash. When their vision cleared they saw Shikamaru, Ino, Lee, Kiba and Chouji. With Ino holding a camera. Takara chucked and Monoki blinked dumbly for a second.

"Just to add to the picture wall." Shikamaru explained.

"Going again Snake Eyes?" A vein appeared on Takara's head.

"Kakashi! I'm warning you… DON'T call me that!" she turned to glare at Kakashi who had randomly appeared at the gate and snapped his book closed.

"Call you what… oh you mean SNAKE EYES!" he was intentionally trying to annoy her now.

"That's it!" she said and dropped her bag from her shoulder, but instead of jumping for him, she whipped out her wallet and pulled out 'the picture'.

"Aw Crap!"

"Well what do you say?" she asked, her finger tips again covering the bottom of the picture of a maskless Kakashi. He was silent, Takara's fingers twitched.

"Alright! Alright! I'm sorry already!" he shouted and slumped, defeated. "is there anyway I can get that picture off you?"

"yup… say please" she grinned evilly. Kakashi swallowed his pride and cleared his throat.

"Please…Takara, may I have that photograph." He cringed, that was painful. Takara's grin deepened.

"Yeah okay fine" she tossed the picture Frisbee style to Kakashi. But it was intercepted by Sakura.

"HA! I finally get to see Kakashi-sensei's face!!" after dodging desperate swipes from Kakashi, she danced out of his reach and looked at the photo. Her hopeful face fell.

"What the hell!!" the bottom of the picture that was always covered by Takara's fingers when she held the photo was blocked out by someone's finger partially covering the camera's lens. Kakashi looked over Sakura's shoulder, first he sighed with relief, then he glared at Takara.

"For nearly fifteen years you held that photo over me, and it was worthless!!!" there was fire in his visible eye.

"heh heh heh," Takara laughed nervously "Monoki…"

"Yeah?"

"RUN!" the two sprinted out the gate and into the trees while Kakashi was held back.

"I'LL GET YOU FOR THAT!!!" he shouted angrily after them followed by the hysterical laughter of the genin (and Shikamaru).

* * *

Later that day Sakura was clearing off the completed paper work from Tsunade's desk. The Hokage was at a meeting with the elders so Sakura was alone in the office. Her mind was still set on Monoki, for some reason she seemed so familiar, but she couldn't place it. Lost in her thoughts she stubbed her toe on the leg of the heavy desk, she dropped everything in her arms, she fell to the ground gripping her foot. After a long string of curses she got to her knees and started picking up the dropped files. She dumped them on the desk to organize them again. Half way through the pile her eyes fell on the familiar black cover of the special circumstances file. Sakura's hand hovered over the file, she had seen Tsunade look over this while speaking about Monoki and Takara and she knew Takara's details where in here, maybe Monoki's was too. Sakura had a quick check in the hallway and closed the door, her curiosity got the better of her. She opened the file and flicked through it, finally she found Takara's page, but she wasn't interested in that now she turned the page and a photo of Monoki stared up at her. Sakura read over the page, the status pentagon had a question mark in it so no help there, there was no detail's on Monoki's past, in fact there was nothing there bar the vital statistics height, weight, distinguishing features, blood line traits… wait… Byakugan? How could a Royki have the Byakugan? Sakura turned the page, the Hokage comments where there. Sakura's jaw hit the floor.

'Royki Monoki aka Hyuuga Hinata

Current Status: Active/In hiding due to danger of assassination. Currently under care of Jonin Royki Takara.

Current Mission: Information Gathering/ In Training

Current location: Unknown'

She couldn't believe it, could it really be her? She flipped back the page and stared at the photo, it did bear a resemblance.

"Sa-Ku-Ra…" Sakura froze as Tsunade's voice came from behind. She turned quickly and tried to hide what she was doing.

"Oh shishou! (Authors note: shishou-master) I wasn't expecting you're meeting to be over for another hour, I'm afraid I haven't quite finished clearing your desk."

"You will tell no one of what you just saw in that file. Got it!"

"Yes!" Sakura shrank back as Tsunade's eyes blazed.

* * *

Takara laughed her head off as they jogged away from the village.

"Okay, I think it's safe to slow down now heehee."

"Sometimes you're really evil."

"I know, great isn't it?"

"yeah" the two women slowed their pace and dropped down on to the ground.

"So where too, sensei?" Monoki asked shoving her hands into her pockets and matching Takara's pace.

"Dunno yet…" Takara said and dropped her bag on the ground. "But maybe its time you dropped the sensei…"

"Er, why?" Monoki looked at her a little confused, "I thought you liked being call sensei by your students.

"Yeah I do, but, to me at least, it seems we're a little more than just sensei and student."

"What do you mean?" Monoki asked.

"Well it seems we're more friends than anything." She replied with a soft smile. Monoki thought about it and she was right, for the last few months with Takara she had trained harder than any other time in her life, yet she was happy, Takara always encouraged her, made her feel better about herself. Even outside of training and theory they spent a lot of time interacting with each other, talking, joking Takara had even shown her how to plait her hair properly, just girl stuff.

"well maybe…" Monoki said, then cracked a smile, Takara grinned back and playfully ruffled her hair.

"Well I now have two months to teach you as much as I can, then we have to be in Suna."

"Why what happens in two months at Suna?" Monoki asked. Takara smiled at her softly with a small glint in her eye.

"The Chuunin Exams."

* * *

_End chapter 22_

_HA HA so few of you guy's guessed the chuunin exams, what where you expecting?_

_**Sakura knows?**_

_Yup why whats wrong with that?_

_**Well you'd think Shikamaru would have figured it out.**_

_But he's lazy…_

_**Just like you then… anyway read and review please and thank you**_

_I'm not lazy… (huffs)_


	23. Chapter 23: Deal with Dragons

_Okay then, there has been a high demand so I'm posting a say early_

_**Yeah so enjoy people… question why has Hinata never appeared in these intros?**_

_Because she's not may creation, only you_

_**But skip?**_

_Is a real person who shouts comments over my shoulder, just be quiet Takara and read._

* * *

**Deal with the Dragons**

"The Chuunin exams?" Hinata exclaimed.

"Yup" Takara said as she searched in her bag for something.

"You do know I failed the last exams…" Monoki said sounding disappointed.

"Yeah…so? I failed my first exam too. Put it like this, you tried, you failed, now you know what to expect. Where the hell is it?" she asked more to herself as she stuck her full arm in the bag to reach the bottom.

"Yeah, but…" Monoki started.

"But what?" Takara asked, her voice slightly muffled as she had shoved her head in the bag looking for the elusive object.

"Do you really reckon I'm ready for this?" Monoki took off her glasses to look Takara in the eye when her head reemerged from the bag.

"As far as you told me you got to the prelims for the third exam the last time, and since then you've become stronger, so I have no doubt that you'll do well in these exams…" Monoki smiled she had never had any one so confident in her abilities before. "Seriously where the hell is it!?" Takara was on the verge of turning the bag upside down and tip out all the contents but before she resorted to such a desperate measure Monoki asked,

"What are you looking for?" now a little worried about Takara's strange rummaging.

"A summoning scroll… it was a red scroll sealed with yellow wax with a small dragon painted on its cover. But its not here…what did I do with it?" Takara ran her finger along her scar in thought, Monoki had never seen such a scroll. Takara let her head fall back and groaned.

"What? You leave it somewhere?" Monoki asked.

"No, I gave it to Ryuu over a year ago, I had completely forgotten."

"What was in this scroll anyway?"

"A summon seal to call the contract, but it doesn't matter now… looks like I'll just have to do it this way."

"Contract?" Monoki was now thoroughly confused as she watched Takara perform the seals to summon Ryuu, but it was not the small blue dragon that appeared.

"WHOA!" Monoki jumped back as a twelve foot green dragon appeared with its serpentine body wrapped several times around a thick scroll.

Takara gave the dragon a small respectful bow.

"Pusa-san" she greeted the dragon. The green dragon's lips curled in a small smile.

"It's been a while since you've summoned me, Takara, and the contract too, I wonder what's on your mind?" the dragon spoke with a surprisingly soft, feminine voice.

"You are still the guardian of the contract Pusa-san, I would like for my student to sign the contract and to teach her the dragon stances with your permission." As this was a formal request of the dragon Takara's eyes never left the ground.

"A student?" Pusa turned her large scaly head to look over at Monoki who was rooted to the spot.

"Monoki…" Takara jerked her head meaning for her to come closer.

"You do know that the dragon stances are only granted to those pure of heart and mind Takara?" the dragon inquired not taking her large sky blue eyes from the small girl.

"I do, and I would not present her if I felt any differently." Takara and stood up straight now but still didn't meet the dragons eye while it considered her request.

"Remove your mask and hat young one." Pusa ordered. Monoki hurried to carry out the actions, her hair, which had now taken back its purple shade fell around her shoulders, her pale eyes where fixed on a spot an inch in front of her right foot.

"Child look at me" the soft voice of the dragon commanded, Monoki looked up into the deep blue eye of the dragon.

"What is your name?"

"Hyuuga Hinata" she answered at once without meaning to.

"Why do you seek power?" the dragon asked still staring intently at the young girls face.

"To regain my name and protect those close to me." She answered immediately once again, her eyes widened, where did that come from? Pusa stared at her for another minute before blinking lazily and turned her gaze to Takara, who had been sweating.

"I see no reason to prevent her learning the dragon stances." The dragon said, Takara almost sighed with relief as Pusa slowly uncoiled her body from around the thick scroll. Takara caught the scroll and laid it on the ground. She beckoned Monoki to come over to her. Monoki stepped closer, still watching the dragon, while Takara unrolled the scroll, numerous empty panels unrivalled, until on into the scroll signatures appeared in them. The most recent being Takara's.

"This is the contract with the dragon's I told you of, it is this," she pointed to her name on the scroll, "which allows me to call these creatures to aid me, and as I promised I am now going to teach you how to do this, but first you must sign the agreement." Monoki looked from the dragon to Takara to the contract. Pusa was looking around the clearing watching a couple of birds flying past, Takara was watching Monoki with gentle eyes, both waiting for Monoki to decide. With a last look at the dragon she knelt down to sign the scroll.

"Got a pen?"

"You don't sign with a pen" confused slightly Monoki looked at the other names, they where written in a red ink, or as Monoki quickly released, blood. She nodded to Takara and bit the tip of her thumb.

"Which name should I use?"

"Your true name" the dragon answered. She signed 'Hyuuga Hinata' in blood in the next blank panel.

"Now with the tips of your fingers leave an imprint below your name." Takara instructed. Monoki pressed each finger to her bloody thumb then pressed her finger tips to the page. Takara smiled in approval and rolled up the scroll and stood it on its end, Pusa again wrapped her long body around the contract to keep it safe.

"Thank you Pusa-san" Takara grinned at the dragon and for the first time since the dragon appeared looked at its face. The dragon's smile deepened,

"You know Takara, you are a strange human… you have gained the respect and trust of my mother, Gusomai, and the loyalty of little brother Ryuu. I like you."

"I feel so honoured, Pusa-san" Takara replied with a sincere smile. Pusa gave a little hissing laugh made sure she had a tight grip on the scroll.

"Lets hope you're youngling can prove to be as good as a friend to the dragons. We have now only two left on the contract, perhaps we will not be forgotten after all."

"Who could forget the noble dragons, Wait did you say two?" Takara didn't like the sound of that.

"I'm afraid so friend Takara, Mistress Yuliy past on not so long ago."

"I see…" she said grimly

"Ryuu did not inform you?" the dragon seemed surprised.

"No, I guess he didn't wish to be the bearer of sad news."

"If it was any comfort, she died peacefully in her bed." The dragon said sadly.

"I understand, thank you for your aid in this matter Pusa and for your news."

"I'm sorry to leave you with sad news, but I must return, until next time friend Takara." Pusa disappeared with a puff of smoke, when it cleared Monoki saw Takara staring at the ground with a grim expression.

"Takara?" she chanced.

"Hmmm?" she looked up torn from her thoughts.

"Who was Yuliy?" Monoki asked.

"She was my official guardian until I turned 20, you know after my parents died. She was a hateful old bat really, how she got approval from the dragons I'll never know, but she was the one who showed me how to summon the dragons… I just wonder why I wasn't told." It seemed that it was this that had shaken Takara more that the news of the woman's death.

"Anyway," she continued without dwelling on it too long, "I didn't think you would have had such a noble reason for gaining power." Takara grinned as Monoki pulled her mask back on to try and hide the blush, but failed.

"I don't know why I said it…" she said and looked away from Takara's teasing face.

"Its impossible to lie under the gaze of an older dragon like Pusa. Now moving long, the seals for the summoning jutsu are 'boar, dog, bird, monkey and sheep" Takara instructed. "focus your chakra and using the hand you signed the contract with release it to summon a dragon."

"Hai!" Monoki joined her hands together and closed her eyes to focus and build up chakra. Then she carried out the hand signs, slowly to get them right, then set her hand on the ground. With a puff of smoke a dragon did appear.

"What is it Takara?" asked little Ryuu.

"I DID IT!!" Monoki shouted and snatched up the little dragon to hug him.

"ACK!!!" being as small as he was meant he couldn't really prevent Monoki from grabbing him. "Whatya mean 'you' did it?" he asked.

"You always said you didn't have to listen to Monoki because she wasn't the one who summoned you, well now you do" Takara grinned evilly as the little dragon looked from Takara to Monoki. The little dragon folded his fore arms and sulked as he dangled from Monoki's arms.

"Damn…" he let out a puff of smoke.

"Aw come on, Ryuu, you love me really." She said and let the dragon stand on her shoulders.

"Well, maybe a little" he grinned, Takara gave Hinata's hair an affectionate ruffle.

"I'm very impressed, this is a very tricky technique, and the fact you have enough chakra at such a young age to summon Ryuu right off the bat is very unusual, and the first time too, it took me a while to master it." Monoki grinned and blushed slightly, but Takara kept grinning and even Ryuu, who had made himself comfortable across both her shoulders, seemed to agree.

"But Naruto-kun was also able to summon the toads and he was younger than me when he first did it." Monoki said her pale lavender eyes on the ground.

"Meyh, well you said yourself he had worked hard to do that, and if you can do it now, what does that say about you?" Takara said, she knew the real reason behind the boys strength but she suspected Monoki did not so she said nothing about the fox demon. Monoki blushed deeply to be compared in a positive light to Naruto.

"Oh look at this you could fry an egg on that face." Ryuu grinned as Monoki's blush deepened, she tried to flick the dragon to make him shut up but he twisted out of the way and curled up on op of her head.

"Takara, why did you have to ask Pusa to allow me to sign the contract?" she asked to change the subject.

"Because," Ryuu answered from the top of her head, "we dragons are noble and just creatures, and we refuse to lend our strength to those who would use it for evil purposes."

"Noble?" Monoki muttered and tried to look up at Ryuu on her head.

"Yes!" he retorted and rapped on her head with a clawed fist.

"OW hey, get offa there" she reached up and grabbed Ryuu off her head and just held him in her arms.

"So what if Pusa didn't agree?"

"Then I would not have been allowed to teach you how to summon the dragons or any of the dragon stances fighting style. I couldn't have."

"Couldn't or wouldn't?" she asked absentmindedly scratching Ryuu's head, he wasn't complaining.

"No I really couldn't, the contract prevents me from doing it, the bind in that contract will physically stop me from teaching it to you with out a dragon's approval."

"How does that work?" she asked.

"I truly don't know…" Takara shrugged, "but there's no need to dwell on that now is there?"

"Nope, sis said you where okay so there's no problem." Piped Ryuu from Monoki's, arms looking very comfortable.

"Yeah that's all well and good but what are the dragon stances, and you let go of my mask." Ryuu was annoying her by tugging on the end of her mask making it slip down her face a bit.

"Why, your nicer to talk to when I can see your face." He said, Monoki ignored him and pushed his tiny hand out of the way.

"The dragon stances are a series of fighting styles, from tai jutsu to elemental attack and defence, even I don't claim to have mastered any of them."

"Yeah and it only took, what? Twenty years to get where you are now." Ryuu teased and pulled Monoki's mask down completely.

"You love to annoy me don't you?" Takara glared at the dragon in Monoki's arms.

"Yup" he answered as Monoki's mask fell on him.

* * *

Back in the Royki clan village nestled in the hills above Konoha, a medic stepped out of the examination room and pulled off her latex gloves.

"Well?" asked a tall man with shoulder length jet black hair.

"I've run a test and it would seem that Mistress Yuliy did not die a natural death."

"What? Then what killed her?" the clan head asked. The medic looked over her notes from the post mortem.

"Well!!" He asked getting anxious.

"It would appear she was poisoned."

"Poisoned!? Are you sure!?"

"I triple checked these tests, it was definitely a toxic poison that killed her…" now it was the medic's turn to get anxious.

"This can't be possible, the Royki clan are immune to all types or poisons and toxins, how can this be?" the man paced the room.

"I know, but with out a large enough sample I can't be sure…" the medic started, but the man cut across her,

"Be sure of what?"

"It would seem that this was created with the sole purpose of killing Royki's." the man's eyes swirled from the usual clan grey to slitted green, his serpent eyes flashed dangerously.

"That would mean…"

"It looks like your uncle was back in the village, do you think he was looking for your sister?" the medic, also a Royki was started to get worried.

"There's no doubt, why else would he go right for Mistress Yuliy, this is bad, she has the strongest resistance to poison than anyone in the clan, if he can kill her he can kill any Royki. He has as big a grudge against the clan as he does with Konoha" The man continued to pace the room his eyes still swirled anxiously.

"You'll have to warn her" the medic started.

"I know but I can't" the man rubbed his temples roughly.

"You aren't going to warn you own sister about this?"

"I want to but I can't, no one knows where she is, Takara hasn't stayed in the same place for more than a month for the past eight years. I heard rumours that she was in Konohua a few months ago but she's saying away from here, like she was told. He was watching the village for her, looks like uncle got tired of waiting."

"I'll have to take the sample of the poison to Tsunade-hime. She will be able to tell us more about it. Yuliy was old and ill as it was but this may still pose a threat to the rest of us" The medic held up and small vial of a dark purple liquid.

"I'll take it, I need to tell the hokage about this anyway. 'He' has gotten too close." He took the vial from the medic and slipped it carefully into his Jonin jacket. As he left the clinic he glanced around the clan village before jumping into the trees towards the main village. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched.

* * *

_Okay jus to let you know there is going to be another mini time skip because im too lazy to write out hinata's training…. So yeah meyh…_

_**But how will we learn the details of her new moves?**_

_Same as the anime, by explaining it to an other character…_

_**Oh, but that's annoying**_

_Ssshh it works! Read and Review Please and Thank you_


	24. Chapter 24: To Suna!

_Well enjoy people here's the next chapter._

_**Enjoy!**_

_(edit) OK I FIXED THE SPELLING STOP MENTIONING IT!!!_

* * *

**To Suna!!**

"Alright, remember what I told you, block out all distractions …"

"To fully utilise the built up chakra because any break in concentration can cause the attack to fail." Monoki finished the lecture for Takara as they walked down the main street of a village, they had been resting here for a few days before the long trek to Suna.

"I know nii-chan, you've told me enough times." To keep up their cover when they where in populated areas Takara always said that she was a travelling artisan and that Monoki was her little sister, to keep with the act Monoki called Takara nii-chan (big sister) and even when it was back to just the two of them she fell into the habit and Takara never objected.

"That may be but its good to make sure you never forget." Takara teased. "Well anyway, how do you feel about the exam next week." She asked with her hands shoved in her pockets as they both sundered down the street, they had just collected their large bags from the hotel.

"okay I suppose…" Monoki's Kakashi style mask was pulled down and hung around her neck as there was no need to hide her face this far from Konohua, but her eyes where still hidden behind her usual glasses.

"Just okay? Well don't panic just remember you can always take it again, so do what you can and if you pass then its great but if not, then no big deal" Monoki got the idea Takara was just trying to make her feel better, but she had to admit… it was working.

"Hey, did I tell you about that creep I came across earlier on, the old pervert was…" Takara stopped as she found she was talking to herself, Monoki was gone.

"Monoki?" Takara turned around and back tracked a bit, "Monoki?" Takara found her pressed up against a wall in an ally way, her face was bright red and her mask had been hastily pulled up.

"What on earth are you doing?" Monoki only let out a small squeak. Takara looked from the radiation red glow from Monoki to down the street. Then she laughed her head off before Monoki pulled her into the ally too.

* * *

His hands where clasped together in a hand sign in front of his chest, his head was bowed and eyes closed. Slowly he went though some practised Tai Bo moves, his slow movements and straining postures where good for warming up and down. His movements were practiced and deliberate. Sanding on one slightly bent leg, his other raised with his foot resting on the inside on his standing leg, he slowly drew his joined hands towards his chest as he inhaled deeply and exhaled as he pushed his hands out again. His mind was in complete focus, until it was shattered by a perverted giggle. 

Naruto's eyes snapped open and he lost his balance and fell flat on his face. From the ground he glared at the source of the distraction. Jiraiya was crouched behind a bush peering through a gap in the bushes with the fingertips of one hand on his lips to stifle the giggles. He was watching a natural mountain hot spring which was popular with a number of young girls from the village in the below valley. Naruto scowled.

"He pays more attention to complete strangers bodies than he does me" he muttered as he got up and Jiraiya continued to giggle. Naruto grinned evilly and rummaged around in his bag and pulled out an air horn, he crept up behind the perverted hermit, which wasn't hard as he was too busy watching the women in the hot water, getting as close as he dared Naruto pressed the button on the top of the horn. A loud blast behind his ear scared the crap out of him and he jumped forward through the hedge. The girls in the water screamed and disappeared faster than Rock Lee when confronted with eyebrow wax (A/N Don't question me!). Jiraiya reached feebly after the girls and moaned at his loss.

"I like it when you stay to supervise my training but not when you do your 'research' when I'm trying to focus!" Naruto scolded, Jiraiya just got up and brushed dirt off his jacket.

"But I am helping your training…" he said

"Oh yeah sure, how do you figure that one?" Naruto huffed and crossed his arms.

"Well I …I ano… I'm helping you to get used to blocking out distractions." The sliver hair sannin smiled lamely, Naruto sweat dropped.

"Er… yeah whatever…" Naruto was beginning to wonder if ero-sannin was serious about his training at all. Naruto opened his mouth to point this out but he was interrupted by his stomach groaning. He wrapped his arms around his midsection, Jiraiya raised an eye brow at him.

"Well you've been working for almost two days straight, lets go to the village down in the valley and get something decent to eat." Jiraiya turned and started walking down the hill without waiting for Naruto to answer, but his stomach got him moving with a pleading grumble. In the town they sat at a table outside in the sun enjoying the heat of the day, and as always where having an argument, or rather a difference in opinion.

"I don't see why you have to keep doing it though." Naruto said through mouthfuls of food.

"Humph! I told you I need inspiration for my new book! You're just a child you don't yet understand the true beauty of the female form." Jiraiya pouted back.

"Yeah I could see the 'beauty' of it but it doesn't mean I have to peek on someone while they're naked" Naruto muttered into his plate.

"What was that!?" Jiraiya demanded and raised a fist threateningly.

"Nothing!" Naruto shouted back and partially ducked, it was a reflex at this stage. Jiraiya muttered to himself about Naruto's youth for a moment then they fell silent as they ate.

"Now THAT is a 'research' subject…" Jiraiya drooled as he looked over Naruto's shoulder, Naruto turned in his chair to see what he was talking about. The street was pretty crowded so Naruto couldn't see which woman he was referring too.

"who?" Naruto turned back to Jiraiya who scowled.

"Not like your inexperienced eyes would know, but over there at the apple cart blue top… hee hee hee" Naruto looked back, there where a few women at the cart stall buying apples and two in blue tops, but with another glance it was obvious which one Jiraiya was referring too. The woman had short jet black hair and was leaning over the cart to select a number of apples and from their lower seated position Jiraiya was able to see right down the woman's v-necked tee-shirt.

"That's sick…" Naruto turned away quickly but Jiraiya continued to just stare with wide eyes and a drop of drool at the side of his mouth. The woman finished her transaction at the cart and with lifted a number of shopping bags, all containing long life food, and started walking down the street past the two of them. Jiraiya watched her pass and stared after her.

"Now that's what I mean, nice and tall, tanned skin, dark hair, curves in all the right places…" he started giggling to himself,

"Pity about the scar though…" Naruto said and returned to his food with another glance at the woman.

"What scar?"

"You didn't even look at her face!!!" Naruto almost shouted it. "She had a scar over her right eye."

"Bah! Either way she's given me loads of ideas for my book, I wonder if she'll provide any more." Jiraiya giggled insanely to himself in his own perverted way and left money for the meal and followed the woman.

"Maybe I should warn her" thought Naruto to himself. "Wait a minute… I've seen her before…where though?" Naruto scratched his chin with the tops of the chop sticks, a grin appeared over his face, ero-sannin was in for a surprise.

Jiraiya had followed the woman for a while, every now and again she would look back then he would pretend to be looking at a display in a shop widow or reading a newspaper, which he kept for just such an occasion. The woman rounded a corner and Jiraiya followed suit, only to run into a very angry woman just around the corner. Her bags where set down, arms crossed and protruding vein on her forehead.

"Why are you following me!?" she demanded. Jiraiya skidded to a halt and tried to think of something.

"Well, I'm a talent scout you see and I couldn't help but notice…" he started

"I up here" she interrupted getting very annoyed as his eyes shot back up to her face, Naruto was right she DID have a scar.

"Sorry but as I was saying, I'm a talent scout and I think you've got what it takes to be a model"

"Okay know what just stop there, that line was so cheesy the mice are lining up behind you, I heard it before and its not working. Now stop followed me." With that she snapped up her bags and stalked away.

"Oh yes the irresistible charm of Jiraiya claims another woman's heart." Naruto appeared just in time to deliver his sarcasm. Jiraiya humphed.

"Just watch, I'll show you charm." He jogged off to catch up with the woman, Naruto lent against the wall.

"This should be good" he watched as Jiraiya caught up with the woman and said something Naruto couldn't hear. The woman stopped and seemed to listen for a second, she stooped to set down her bags, while she was looking down Jiraiya smirked up the street to Naruto and when he looked back at the woman his face met a fist. He skidded down the street and stopped near Naruto. The woman walked away with a satisfied laugh.

"Maybe I should have told you that she's a jonin from Konoha." Naruto said picking dirt out from under his nails.

"That might have been helpful…" came the muffled voice from the sannin who was face down in the dirt. Naruto poked fun at Jiraiya for this for most of the day and the piece of rolled up tissue paper up his nose to stop the bleeding just added to Naruto's fun.

"anyway joking aside we should be getting back to your training." Said Jiraiya in the hopes of distraction Naruto. The blond boy agreed and they started walking down the main street intending to return to their spot in the above hills. Naruto heard a loud laugh behind him. He turned around and saw the jonin from before, she was laughing at something down an alley.

"Hey look its your girl friend." Naruto teased, the sannin jumped behind Naruto as if he was being attacked when he released he meant she was down the street he stood up again.

"If I learned one thing from Tsunade it was never to approach a pissed off woman, I'll meet you up there." With that he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto scowled.

"You mean a woman who could kick your butt." Naruto looked back down the street to see a hand streak out from the alley and grab the jonin's arm and pull her into the alley.

"Huh?" Naruto jogged down the street and skidded into the mouth of the alley with a hand in his equipment pouch expecting to face muggers but instead it was just the jonin and a masked girl.

"Oh sorry I thought that you were er… yeah…" he muttered to himself and rubbed the back of his head.

"Nah it's okay kid." The jonin shook the smaller girls hand off her wrist. The smaller girl just stared any visible skin was almost glowing red.

"Hey you're the one that brought Hinata back to the village right?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, why what's wrong?"

"Have you seen her since that?" Naruto asked.

"No, why?" Takara acted innocently. Meanwhile Monoki beside her was resisting the urge to poke her finger tips together and had her hands clasped tightly at her sides.

"Oh… never mind…." He said a little quieter. "Hey are you okay?"

"Monoki squeaked as he spoke to her. She nodded because se couldn't speak.

"You sure you look like you got a fever."

"N-no, I'm F-fine…r-really" her voice was rather high.

"er… yeah… well nice to see you again but I really gotta go bye!" he said and ran off out of the alley. Monoki grabbed Takara.

"Going! Now!"

* * *

Naruto slowed his pace back in the street and thought to himself, the last time he saw that Jonin was the day before they found out Hinata was gone, and that girl she was with was just weird. She looked like she had a fever, high voice and a stutter. Naruto stopped mid step. 

"Hinata!" he spun around and sprinted back into the alleyway only to find it empty.

"Hinata……….."

* * *

"Can I ask what the rush is?" Takara shouted after Monoki as she jumped quickly through the trees. Monoki didn't answer. Takara drew level with her. 

"That was Naruto, wasn't it?" Takara asked. Monoki nodded but kept up the pace.

"Yes." Her voice was still a little high.

"Let's see, high voice, red face and the return of the stutter. You like that guy don't you?" Takara teased.

"No, where'd you get that idea!" Monoki shouted back, and not looking where she was going she smacked into a tree.

"Now you see that says another thing." Takara said as she helped Monoki back to her feet.

"Okay, Okay so I do…" she snapped back rubbing her forehead and turning red. "you gonna tease me?"

"Now why would I do that?" Takara picked up Monoki's glasses which where broken across the bridge. "I know I have an evil sense of humour but I'm not that evil. I don't think you can wear these again." She handed the two pieces of her glasses to her. Monoki took them. "So tell me, how long have you liked him?" Monoki sighed.

"For ages, but I always got so shy around him, seems I haven't changed any…" a lens fell out of her broken glasses, "Damit"

"Wasn't he the one who kept visiting you while you where in the hospital?"

"Yeah… but he only thought of us as friends then…" Monoki rolled down her mask, she didn't like hiding her face so when she could avoid it.

"Really, seemed a little more to me…"

"You said you wouldn't poke fun! Anyway I'd rather not talk about it."

"I wasn't poking, but eventually you are going to have to come clean with him, but okay I'll drop it if you want, but remember you know you can talk to me right?" Takara asked.

" Yeah, I know nii-chan, thanks."

"It's why you love me" That was just one of Takara's many phases (A/N actually it's mine, but Takara can use it) "So shall we move on at a more reasonable pace?"

"Yeah we had better." The other lens fell out of the frame. "Aw these were my favourite…"

"I thought the blue tinted ones where."

"Well yeah but these ones match my mask" Takara bust out laughing as Monoki smirked.

"You're learning more than fighting styles anyway, come on then we've got a long way to go."

"Hai" they started walking down the road.

"Wait, what day is it?" Takara asked.

"er…Tuesday, I think" they had been training far away from any populated areas and that meant they had lost track of time, that and Takara's watch got water logged.

"Excuse me!" Takara called to some one on the road. "What day is it?"

"Wednesday" the man called back and walked on.

"Aw shit!" Takara shouted thanks to the man and the two shinobi started jogging down the road.

"We're gonna be late!" Monoki shrugged her slipping pack back onto her shoulder.

"Wait stop I got a better idea" Monoki skidded to a stop.

"What? Unless you got a couple of horses stashed in that bag of yours we gotta get going. Then again you've got some weird things stashed in that bag so I guess it wouldn't surprise me."

"Oh yes you're hilarious, but no, not horses." Takara nipped both her thumbs so they started to bleed, Monoki smiled as she caught on to what Takara meant.

"This should be fun."

* * *

"This is so troublesome… I'm already a chuunin why do I have to come?" moaned Shikamaru as he walked down the dusty road. Sakura who was walking beside him rolled her eyes. 

"You know why. The sand doesn't have enough proctors to carry out the exam properly than and you are one of the emissaries to Sand." Shikamaru sighed heavily.

"You're just raging cuz no one else is coming."

"I suppose, but then again we can't send to many teams to an exam in another village a lot of them didn't want to travel really."

"And they call me lazy……."

"Yeah well you are." Shikamaru shrugged and offered no argument.

"So how far are we from sand now?"

"About two days, we're nearly at the edge of the desert." Interjected Temari, she was the one chosen to led the leaf group to the village.

"I thought it was only three days to Sand? We've been walking for two"

"Yeah three days if you're running but it's five if you're walking." Temari said, Shikamaru sighed again and they fell silent as they walked on.

"What's wrong Sakura? You keep looking around." Temari asked.

"Yeah, we're expecting someone to meet us but, they're late."

"Who?" Shikamaru asked.

"Do you ever listen at briefings? Takara and Monoki." She snapped back.

"Oh, and no." Both girls rolled their eyes at the lazy boy.

"Anyway Temari-san, they where supposed to meet with us yesterday but they didn't show." Sakura explained. They walked on for the rest of the day with the rest of the group which included Tsunade and Shizune with Tonton trotting along beside along with a number of shinobi, but there was only a few teams from leaf and none of them where from the Konoha eleven, they where older genin from the year above Sakura in the academy. Shikamaru and Temari were really the only ones in the group she knew.

"Meeyyhhh" Tonton whined from further up the group.

"Huh?" Tsunade stopped and looked down at her pet pig. Tonton sniffed the air and waddled to the edge of the path.

"What is it?" Shizune asked.

"Meyyh" Tonton whined again.

"Something's coming." Tsunade said. Two large dark shapes came over the hill and bounded towards the group at some speed. They skidded to a halt on the dirt path kicking up a cloud of dust. Two gigantic back panthers with riders, one panther flicked its tail with an audible snap and the other growled faintly.

"You're late." Tsunade said calmly. The two panthers disappeared and the riders stood up straight.

"Yeah sorry about that, we lost track of time" Said Takara rubbing the back of her head and grinning. Both panthers had returned to tattoo form on her arms.

"That will always be cool." Said Shikamaru, Sakura nodded she loved Takara's branded summon too.

"What the hell was that!?" Shouted Temari jumping down from a tree. While Takara was scolded by Tsunade for being late Shikamaru explained about the branding summoning jutsu.

"cool. Where did she get that?"

"She won't even tell me yet" Monoki came up to them and waved. "Hey guys."

"Hey, Temari this is Monoki." Shikamaru introduced the two girls.

"Hey Monoki" said Sakura said with a wide grin. Monoki lent back she was a little scared by Sakura.

"Ah, something wrong Sakura?"

"Nope"

"Then what's with the look?"

"Nothing…" the group was starting to move off again.

"So tell me, who else is in our team Sakura." Monoki asked Sakura after her insane grin faded.

"I dunno, who is the third one." Sakura turned to Temari.

"Matsuri, she's Gaara's apprentice."

"but she's a sand nin, how can she be on our team?"

"Gaara and Tsuanade-hime agreed to form a mixed team to show the strong alliance between our two villages. That and he couldn't find a team for Matsuri in time." Monoki snorted and started to giggle.

"So this is a political thing then?" asked Shikamaru, "I hate politics."

"Well think about it the two villages have got pretty close ever since…. What did you call it… oh yeah, operation 'return a favour'" Temari teased.

"Hey I saved your butt didn't I?" Shikamaru pouted.

"Alright I'll give you that but remember I saved yours first." She strode on out ahead and Monoki and Sakura laughed at the chuunin's face.

"Not funny…"

"Yeah… it is." Monoki pointed out.

"AH you don't even know what we're on about."

"True but your face is priceless." Sakura grinned again, it really was Hinata, she was part of that operation too, but she couldn't say anything in front of everyone else.

"Seriously are you planning something evil or what? Your starting to creep me out Sakura!"

_End chapter 24_

* * *

_There did we like that? GOOD!!_

_**And now the bad news…**_

_Er yeah… (hides behind Takara) I'm away on holiday for two weeks so don't expect and update for a while._

_(Dodges pointy objects thrown at her) HEY come on I work in a flipping call centre I need these two weeks!!_

_So I'm away to the south of Ireland WOOT! And my sisters wedding so seeya when I see ya…_

_(Is hit by a chair)_

_**Hee hee got her… Read and review, please and Thank you!**_


	25. Chapter 25: Lets the Exams Begin

_I'm BACK!!! WOOT I'M HOME_

_**Yup me too im back as well**_

_Well after a week of being attacked by hairdressers, make up artists, manicurists and a loonatic with a spray tan machine, I was all lovely and pretty for my sisters wedding yesterday and it went on with out a hitch awwwww._

_So my holidays end now on Tuesday but I didn't forget about my loyal fans so with out further ado here the next chapter!!_

_**Bout time!**_

_You're such a buzz kill…._

* * *

**Let the Exams Begin**

"This sand gets everywhere!" moaned Sakura as the came up to the valley leading into Suna.

"Tell me about it…" Monoki said reaching under her mask to shake loose irritating grains of course sand. All the ones from leaf where getting very uncomfortable with the sand where as the sand ninja smirked at them. Temari took great pleasure in poking fun at Shikamaru as he created several funny walks in the attempt to shift sand from his boxers.

"Leave me alone!" he shot back.

"Enough" Tsunade shot at Shikamaru, who, in turn, shot a scowl at Temari. Temari led the group through the city to the Kazekage's tower. Gaara was waiting on the steps to greet the hokage. The two kage's went into Gaara's office to clear the formalities and sort out the final details. While they where in the office the rest of the group waited in a large council meeting room. The genin were in one corner of the room along with Shikamaru and Temari. Monoki sat on the table and swung her legs, Sakura lent on the table next to her, Shikamaru lounged in a chair, the three stayed a bit away from the other gennin they just didn't know them.

"So how do you feel about the exams Sakura." Monoki asked

"I guess I feel okay about this. Tsunade-sama has taught me a lot so I think I'm ready for this." Sakura shrugged. "How about you?"

"I dunno… I think so. Then again if he could do it…"

"What is it pick on Shik day?" he groaned from the chair.

"yup, so when do we meet the other girl?" Monoki asked and shuffled further onto the table.

"Right now" Temari came back into the room and came over to the three of them, "Gaara wants to talk to you two, and you Takara-san"

"Okay" Takara broke off the conversation she was having with one of the ANBU body guards. "Come on kid" Monoki slid off the table and Sakura followed. The four women headed up to the top floor to Gaara's office. Gaara was seated at his desk with a young female ninja standing behind his chair with short brown hair. Tsunade was seated opposite with Shizune behind her. Takara moved behind the hokage and pulled Monoki with her, Sakura moved automatically to the other side of Tsunade. Gaara looked over the two gennin with his impassive face. His eyes lingered over the Monoki's mask for a moment. Then back to Tsunade.

"Well everything has been organized no one has any objections about the apprentice team, so there is no problem." he said slowly. Tsunade smiled to herself.

"Well then you've traveled far so I'll let you get some rest the first exam begins tomorrow at 2:30 in the afternoon. Matzuri would you take your new teammates to the dorms please."

"Yes it would be a good idea for you three to get to know each other, it would be better if you were able to work as a team." Tsunade added to the girls, Gaara gave a small nod in agreement.

"Yes Gaara-shishou." Matzuri stepped around Gaara and beckoned Sakura and Monoki to come with her.

Takara held back in the office.

Matzuri led the way down the corridor and down a few flights of stairs and into another part of the Kazekage tower. They came to a plain door with a small sign on the wall next to it reading 'Matzuri'.

"You live in the Kage tower?" asked Sakura a little surprised.

"Hai, I'm an orphan so I was in an orphanage most my life, but when Gaara took me on as his apprentice he prepared this for me, he told me it would be better to have somewhere to myself, but I think he just wants to make sure I'm safe after the whole kidnapping thing although he'll never admit it out loud." She smiled and opened the door. (A/N There is nothing about Matzuri laid out in the manga or anime so I'm making it up…….. just go with it people) Just in the door was what seemed like a small living room, it had a coffee table, a two seater sofa, a rather beat up looking arm chair and a small book shelf stuffed with instructional scrolls. On the left was a tiny kitchen with a fridge, cooker and a kettle on the right was a bedroom with a large enough bed and two camp beds pushed in as well.

"Cool" said Monoki as she looked around the rooms.

"Well I like it, you can leave your bags in the bedroom there" she pointed to the bedroom door and while the two leaf dumped their bags Matzuri dug out a couple of cans of coke from her small fridge.

After handing over the drinks the three sat in the living room in an awkward silence for a few minutes.

"So…ano …. Sakura Tsunade-hime told me that you took part in the exams before"

"Yeah… I got knocked out in the prelims for the third test."

"So whats the exam consist of then?" Matzuri asked, "It might help if we know what to expect."

"Good point, Well Tsunade-sishou said that the exams have more or less the same structure each time, so first is the written exam which is really a test of covert information gathering skills, second is the survival exercise, and then last is a straight out elimination fights of the genin that have passed the other tests."

"Right…" Matzuri thought for a moment, "Do you have any ideas or strategies worked out for this?"

"Now that you mention it… no…" said Sakura.

"Well we've been given this time, so we may as well compare each others fighting styles and strengths so we can work out the most efficient way of working together. For example, at this time my strengths lie in medium to close range combat with elemental attacks and my blades." Monoki offered.

"I'm a medically trained ninja with close range hand to hand combat skills." Said Sakura following Monoki's lead. Matzuri nodded,

"I'm a medium to long range type with my jouhyou (the dart on a rope thing Gaara gave her) I can distract enemies and even disable them."

"Looks like we got a well enough balanced team, that will be good for the survival part of the exams, but first we gotta figure out how we get through the written exams, we still have to get a decent score, after some guy passed by handing in a blank paper they're up holding that rule now, each of us has to get at least three questions correct." Monoki said.

"Hee, yeah that was Naruto, he was on my team last time, but okay so I could answer most of the questions last year on my own so I think I'll be okay, Monoki?"

"I got something but it's a clan secret" she said, Matzuri snorted in mirth.

"Yeah okay then, Gaara-shishou taught me a cool trick." Matzuri reached over the side of her chair and pulled what looked like a thick broadsword sheath from the floor, when she sat it on the table the other two girls could see that it was a cylinder. Matzuri gave the top a twist and it popped off the tube was filled to the brim with sand.

"Its called the 'Third Eye' Matzuri closed her right eye and pressed the tips of her index and middle fingers of her right hand on the eyelid, as she did a small ball of sand rose from the tube and formed into an eye.

"Cool!" exclaimed Monoki, "Creepy but cool"

"You can manipulate sand too? I thought only Gaara could do that because of the demon."

"Well yeah that's for his sand shield, but other things like his sand armor and creating more sand takes a level of conscious effort and control. Basically this sand in the tube has been infused with a large amount of my charka so there fore it will respond to anymore I channel towards it."

"Oh I see like Tenten channels chakra into her giant shurikan to control it after she has thrown it." Sakura said,

"Well, yeah but on a much larger scale, you have no idea just how much chakra it takes to animate the sand, its taken me this long just to create this much, so for now the sand is more of a supporting role."

"Still a good weapon though." Monoki pointed out.

"Yeah" Sakura agreed, the three girls planned until around midnight, thinking of plans for both the first and second exams. Monoki continued to pretend that she had not taken part in an exam before and just let Sakura explain the process. At midnight they turned in for a restless nights sleep.

* * *

The trio got up pretty late because after they finally did get to sleep, they over slept. 

"Damit, Damit, Damit" muttered Sakura as she pulled on her gloves and hopped about trying to pull on a shoe.

"Relax its only 11:45, the registration doesn't close until two, so calm down." Said Monoki doing up the straps on her single vambrace on her left arm.

"Yeah, don't tell me you're one of those uptight types." Matzuri said while she double checked her equipment in her pouch.

"I'm not I just don't wanna mess up this time." Monoki rolled her eyes but the others didn't see it due to the glasses.

"Don't mind her Matzuri, I'm sure we'll be fine but to spare ourselves from an earful we don't we speed it up a bit and be early."

"Hey!" Sakura shouted and chucked a spare t-shirt at her a lose button caught the edge of her mask and the other two laughed as the t-shirt hung from Monoki's mask.

"Hey respect the mask!" She shot back and carefully unhooked the t-shirt.

"You even wear that thing while you sleep, hope it's a good reason you keep it hidden." Matzuri prodded while she slung her tube of sand over her back.

"It is…" Monoki said quietly

"Alright I'll take you're word for it, now come on we'll head on over to the school, doesn't hurt to be early." Matzuri said not pursuing the matter.

"Yeah okay" the two leaf genin followed Matzuri out of the small flat and out of the Kazekage tower. They chatted away on the way to the school at the sign in they paused while filling in the forms

"What village do we write, I mean it's a mixed team." Sakura asked the other two, they shrugged.

"Write the 'apprentice team' that has already been settled." Matzuri and Sakura jumped as Takara appeared behind them.

"I got used to that…." She muttered to the other two girls, Matzuri muttered curses to herself and lifted a fresh form as the scare caused her to drag her pen across the page.

"Stealth is important Monoki you know that." She teased. "Well anyway hurry up with that kids and good luck to all of you okay." Takara ruffled Monoki's hair and walked off down the hall. They filled in the form and headed into the room. They sat in a corner in their own team, the other teams sat in different parts of the room each in groups from their own village. Monoki sat on a desk Matzuri sat on a seat and Sakura leant against the wall.

"What time is it?" Asked Sakura, Monoki shrugged she didn't have a watch.

"Almost time…" answered Matzuri, and nodded at the clock behind Monoki on the wall. The moment Matzuri closed her mouth the door opened and a number of shinobi entered the room. Monoki and Sakura noted Shikamaru and a few other Leaf chunins in the group of proctors, the sand jonin leading the group glared over the suddenly silent room. His piercing eyes swept the room.

"Alright kiddies, here's the deal you're gonna shut up and listen. Welcome to the chuunin exams, don't expect it to be easy. Alright line up and take a number and sit in order." One of the sand proctors stood forward with a box, at first no one made a move pick out a number, the sand jonin cleared his throat loudly and glared at the corner in which the sand genin where huddled, they jumped and started forward right away, it was clear that this jonin was well known and it seemed the genin where scared of him. The others followed once they where seated and spread apart from each others team mates the jonin started up again.

"Alright listen up, this is the written portion of the chuunin exams. Being handed out to you now are the papers don't look at them before you're told, anyone who does otherwise will fail immediately!!." He started and glared at a guy who was fiddling with the edge of his paper. A couple of proctors finished handing out the papers and they with the others sat at the end on each row on both sides of the room with a clip board and a pencil, Shikamaru was at the end of Monoki's row, she glanced over the one mist village person that separated them, he was gazing lazily at the jonin explaining the test and stifled a yawn, he and the other leaf chuunin helping out where dressed the same as the sand chuunin. Fair enough Suna wasn't too proud to ask for help from their friends but they just didn't want the other villages to know about it, Tsunade understood about that and didn't mind, Suna didn't want it well known that it's military was lacking in high ranked Shinobi, so Tsunade lent a number of chuunins to help with the exams while most of the real Suna chunins where on missions.

"Alright kiddies here's how this works. Each of you start off with ten points, there are ten questions, for each question you get wrong a point is deducted, for you idiots that means that if you get all the questions right you keep your ten points if you get one wrong to end up with nine point and so on. Now here's the real kicker, this is a team test, whether or not you pass depends on the combined score of the whole team, so each team has thirty points and you gotta work to keep as much of them as possible, so if any of you have a idiot on your team you pretty much fail. Any questions?"

A few genin raised their hands.

"None? Good, moving on." The jonin ignored them, it was either understand him or fail. "Next anyone caught cheating three times will fail automatically along with their teammates. Remember you are being watched carefully!" he indicated the chuunins seating around the room. Monoki looked over her shoulder to Sakura, she was seated a few rows behind Monoki and was twisting the pencil around in her fingers, on the other side of the room from Monoki was Matsuri and one row back, she was seated at the end of the row, right in front of one of the proctors. Both girls where getting ready, Sakura sharpening her pencil, Monoki taking the top off a soda bottle and setting it on her desk, the bottle was filled with some of her sand and would be less conspicuous than trying to get sand out of her cylinder but even then that was only if Sakura wasn't able to answer the questions, before the exam Matsuri planted some sand on her and Monoki, but from what she gathered Sakura would be able to answer the questions but still just in case.

"Alright pencils ready the test starts …." He said watching the clock waiting for the second hand to reach 12. "NOW!" the room filled with the rattle of papers as everyone looked at the paper. Monoki scanned the page to see if there was any she could answer herself the first one was a diagram of a tree and a projected arch. The others where graphs, ciphers, code breakers, and a complex formula that made Monoki go cross eyed it was clearly too difficult for a genin, and the tenth question was 'this question will be handed out 45 minutes into the exam listen to the examiner carefully before answering.' As she had hoped it was more or less the same as the last time, questions so complex it forced the genin to cheat. Monoki read the first question.

_The diagram shows the path of flight of a standard kunai knife thrown by a shinobi at the top of a tree, calculate the increase/decrease in range when the following items are attached to the kunai allow for a southern wind at 15mph._

Monoki read the question again. _Okay fuck that, __Byakugan!!! _She scanned the room looking for one of the three planted chuunins in amongst the test takers to leak out the answers. _Genin, genin, cheating genin, genin on verge of nervous break down, genin, chuunin perfect._ She found one and copied his answers, they all seemed to be right all she would need to do is wait for the tenth and trick question. A kunai slammed into the desk next to her right through the paper of the mist ninja.

"Number 48, you fail" said Shikamaru with an uncharacteristic authoritive tone. "So do your team mates leave the exam room now" the three mist shuffled from the room, the first but by no means the last of the group to be eliminated by the first test. The test continued with teams being disqualified at random intervals until finally,

"Alright, pencils down and listen closely, its time for the tenth and final question. But first you have to choose whether or not you wish to take it, if you don't want to then leave the room with your team because you fail."

"That's stupid of course we're gonna take it then!" shouted a cloud ninja.

"Quiet!" shouted the jonin and threw a kunai into the desk in front of the boy.

"ACK" he shouted as he fell out of his chair.

"If you decide to take the tenth question and get it wrong, you're score will be reduced to zero and not only will you fail you will lose the right to ever retake the chuunin exams" the room erupted in shouts of unfairness but Monoki and Sakura had heard it before from Ibiki and knew what to expect.

"So if any of you don't think you're up to this then leave now and retake the exam when you think you can. So kiddies choose" the jonin glared around the room as a number of genin stood up and left followed by their team mates, Monoki turned to look behind herself and Matsuri had turned sideways in her chair so she could see both her team mates, the three girls exchanged glances then nodded to each other, they weren't moving. Finally only 42 genin remained, 14 teams.

"Is this all then… very well then. First off the proctors are going to check your test any team that has failed to get at least 3 questions right per person will fail." The proctors checked team lists against the answers but no further teams where sent away.

"Very well then there is only one thing to say, and that is to congratulate all of you for passing the first exam." Monoki sighed it was identical to the first test in the first exam, and while the jonin explained the whole 'leap of faith' thing as a reason for passing the test she wondered what the second test would be like, more or less it would be a variation of the forest of death, but it would be harder now because although she knew what to expect she and Sakura where two plants in a dessert, unfamiliar terrain so that in itself would make the next test hard and another thing was would it be the same theme as last time too with the scrolls. As she pondered another jonin appeared.

"You let far too many pass, this means the second test will just have to be tougher, this may be fun to watch. All of you follow me to the second test."

The Jonin lead them out of the school and outside the village the walked for about a mile outside the village until they cam to a large door sunk into the ground. The door opened for them and they wall stepped inside. Just in the door was a small corridor that stretched in both directions opposite the main door was another door marked 1, to the left and much further down the hall was a door marked 2, there was another door down the right hand side corridor marked 44.

"Welcome to the labyrinth! This is where you will carry out the second exam, your goal is to deliver a scroll to a temple in the centre of the labyrinth." Explained the new jonin.

"That's not so hard." Complained a cocky moon village shinobi.

"Oh well listen up then cuz if you think this is easy then you must be a fool. First I'll explain the terrain, the labyrinth is a large circular area that has a radius of 10km with 44 evenly spaced gates, each of these gates leads into a different part of the maze, yes a maze" he shot when a smoke ninja shouted,

"ya wha?"

"If it's a maze how are we meant to get to the centre?" asked the smokes team mate.

"that's the fun part. Each of you will be given maps to help you locate the centre of the maze, but you will only get either the outer ring or centre circle of the map. You will need both parts of the map to find your way to the centre, and there is only 7 complete maps, meaning 14 half maps so this in itself will chop your numbers in half." The Jonin held up the maps one was blue the other was red to show the difference.

"So that means we have to take the other half of the map from another team?" asked a leaf genin.

"That's exactly it, but that would still leave us with 7 teams which is still a little much. So because of this large group we've had to change the test a bit. What would have happened was that you would have had to navigate your way through the maze to collect a scroll from one of 22 rooms but instead you must locate one of the scrolls in only four rooms with in the maze and return it to the temple. So 22 scroll rooms but only four of which contain scrolls"

"That you mean at the very most only four teams can pass this test meaning there's only 12 of us can fight in the finals, they mustn't want all the brother of prelims like we had in Konohua" Sakura said quietly to her team mates, the other two nodded.

"Now listen up there are some rules to this test. One, if one of your team mates is disabled or killed then you fail the test even if you recover a scroll all three members must finish the test. Two, This test has a time limit of five days and will test your survival skills because you will have to scavenge food and water from the landscape, but don't worry there is plenty in there you just have to find it. Three, both parts of the map will be needed to successfully navigate the maze and unlock the room in which the scrolls are hidden so you can't force you're way with only one part. Four, once you have obtained the scroll you must not open it, to be able to transport sensitive documents is a must for a shinobi so self restraint must be shown, so if the scroll is opened you will automatically fail. And finally five, when you arrive at the temple you must have all three scrolls or you will fail. Okay, now then to warn you with in this maze are a number of traps and wild animals as well as your competitors so you will get hurt or it is possible that you can be killed. So you will have to sign one of these consent forms once you have done that go into that booth and collect your half of the map then go to your assigned gate and wait the start of the second exam."

The apprentice team signed their sheets and collected their scroll, the red one, then headed with a proctor to gate 13 while they waited they checked what food they had enough for three days and water for two. Sakura looked at the map with the other two looking over her shoulder.

"this is the best we could hope for." Monoki said happily.

"How so?" asked Sakura

"It's the outer ring so if we can find our gate we can have an advantage by knowing what's around us, look there's water hole marked those will help." Matsuri continued catching on to what Monoki meant.

"Oh right I get it right so none of the gates are labelled so we will have to figure it out once we get in there." Sakura said looking closely at the map of the maze with a large white patch where the middle should be.

"Right, you three get ready." Said the proctor looking at his watch he unbolted the door and stood with his hand on the handle. "3…2…1" an air horn blasted echoed out along the hall and he wrenched the door open and the three girls entered into the maze.

The second exam had begun.

_End chapter 25_

* * *

_I was gonna continue on a bit into the second exam but it's the day after my sisters wedding I have a house to clean and im hungover so you can for give me and wait_

_**Well people was this worth the wait? Read and review please and Thank you!**_


	26. Chapter 26: The Second Exam: Outer Ring

_I know I promised this on Friday but, I was working till 11 at night all week so not a lot of time to write, speaking of please note the majority of this was written at 2 or 3 in the morning okay_

_**Yeah so enjoy also I'll point out this is the longest chapter to date WOOT! (also please excuse the excessive use of the word 'fuck' in this chapter)**_

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**The Second Exam: The Outer Ring**

The girls started in to the maze slowly, Monoki took charge of the map because with all the travel she did she knew her way around a map. As they travelled Monoki kept a record of the turns they made. It was just as Monoki pictured, stone walls that extended into the blackness of an unseeable roof with the occasional vine and vegetation, sandy ground and touches in brackets on the walls, but apart from them it was dark. Sakura and Matsuri kept their eyes and ears open while Monoki counted quietly to herself. After a while they came to a large open chamber, it was wide with a few openings to other corridors and a few pillars the ground was covered in a springy moss because a small stream of spring water was trickling down one of the pillars and sunlight was pouring in through a high skylight in the roof, which was covered with a fine mesh of bars, it must have been a chimney that led above ground and allowed fresh air to change out the old stuff and by the looks of it, the chimney was off limits for the exam as there where two proctors sitting on the edge playing cards.

"Think this water is fresh?" Asked Sakura, taking a close look at the stream.

"Normally desert springs are fresh, let me check." Matsuri set down her bag and went to check the water, Monoki sat down and looked over the map and the chart she scribbled, she shuffled over to the light and compared the maps with a pencil between her teeth, which was really comical since her Kakashi mask was on. Sakura and Matzuri talked to each other and topped up the canteens while Monoki poured over the map.

"HA!" she shouted and jumped up.

"What?" Sakura asked holding her chest, Monoki had scared her.

"I found our gate, I know where we are. Here look." The other two girls looked over her shoulder as she pointed to the map. There where a few pencil marks on the map, most rubbed out but one definite line was drawn to a large room in which they must be in. "No other passage has the same pattern of turns we took, and it looks like the map is in scale, but still look here these are the scroll rooms." She pointed to 22 rooms that where evenly spaced around the outer ring with the kenji for scroll in tiny print on the map.

"There is no direct path to these rooms on the outer ring, you need both parts of the map to get anywhere near one of these rooms."

"Yeah, If we're here, this one is the closest, but like you said we need to get the other part of the map."

"Right I'm gonna suggest we work our way to another gate to try and encounter another team and see what we can get but sine we know where we are I wanna keep to the outer ring we can't risk getting lost in the blank region." Monoki said.

"I agree so which way will we go?" Asked Matsuri,

"Ano, that's why I called you guys" the three planned a route through the maze towards another gate and started off.

The Maze terrain changed often from the dull desert like corridors to lavish vegetated open areas, over each open area was a skylight allowing sunlight to enter, even in some open areas was large trees drawing water from ponds. There were lots of fruit vines and fish so the girls gathered what they could while they had the chance. What was worst was there where animals in the shadows and they came across numerous dens and lairs and large paw and hoof prints on the ground and the occasional growl from the shadows.

"Bet this makes you two feel a bit more at home." Joked Matsuri as the three paused for dinner in a large chamber filled with a couple of trees each reaching for the skylight.

"Much more." Said Sakura munching an energy bar. "Well if Monoki's directions where right then we should be close to another gate so we gotta stay alert in case that other team is near here, right Monoki, HEY!" Sakura shouted.

"Huh? What?" Monoki hadn't been paying attention, she had been watching the chuunin proctors on the edge of the sky light that was well beyond reach.

"Where you even listening to me!?" Sakura moaned.

"Yeah, but I just wanted to annoy you." Monoki grinned, Matsuri chuckled and Sakura scowled. "Aw come on Sakura lighten up a bit" Sakura's scowl cracked and she laughed along with the other two.

"Wait! Shh, be quiet!" said Matsuri she held up her hand and froze trying to listen. The sound of arguing echoed down the hall on their right, and it sounded pretty heated. The three girls nodded sharply to each other and started towards the noise down the hall. Monoki was careful to note the halls they took.

"I told you to aim for the big one! Now it's gone and all we got was this little runt, this'll never feed the three of us! You BAKA!"

The girls where crouched in the shadows at the entrance to the chamber, it was a rain ninja team, a short fat one was shouting at a tall guy with a bow, a third guy was staying well out of reach of both of them.

"Sorry boss" the tall guy muttered, "I'll get the big cat next time"

"There won't be a next time you scared it off with your dam bellowing, still at least you didn't completely mess up." The short guy held up a small sack who's contents was whining loudly and thrashing about. Sakura started to sneak closer but Monoki grabbed her shoulder, when Sakura looked back Monoki pointed in front of her. There was a trip wire on the ground these guys had laid traps, so the girls crouched behind a boulder that was jutting from the ground, and crept closer.

"And you where's that dam fire!" the bossy short guy shouted at the third rain.

"I'm getting there boss, I'm getting there!!" he shouted back, he was terrified of this guy. The three girls had taken up positions in the shadowed corners of the room they had the rain surrounded.

"At least kill the damn thing it's starting to annoy me!" he shouted at the tall guy. Monoki leapt from her hiding spot and threw a kunai at the boss, he jumped back and the kunai stuck the ground at the same time Monoki landed she quickly charged forward and engaged the boss with her twin blades. The guy with the bow drew an arrow from his quiver and cocked his bow aiming for Monoki but Matsuri's jouhyou rope shot from the shadows behind him and wrapped around his upper body trapping his arms to his side, with a strong yank, the tall guy was pulled into the shadows as he kicked and screamed. The third guy had dropped his flints when Monoki had first appeared and lifted two metal plated tonfas, his attention quickly turned to the shadows in which the tall guy had just been pulled. He turned swiftly as Sakura charged towards him from behind, he brought up his tonfas to protect himself but with her super strength Sakura shattered them in one punch and sent the guy flying against a rock as Sakura charged again he dropped to his knees and with his arms over his head and ass in the air he shouted through sobs,

"Please don't hurt me! I didn't even want to take this exam!! PLEASE!!" Sakura skidded to a stop and stared at him she shook her head at the pitiful scene. Monoki had quickly out maneuvered the fat guy and he was lying on the ground knocked out and Matsuri stepped from the shadows dragging the tall guy also out cold.

"That was way too easy…" said Matsuri, dumping her guy on the ground.

"Yeah…"said Monoki a little disappointed and gave her guy a gentle kick, she wasn't going to attempt to move the fat ass. Sakura had returned to the centre of the room gripping the sobbing coward by his collar. The others sweat dropped when they saw him.

"At least your guys put up a fight…" she said as she pushed him down next to the knocked out others. Monoki sniggered.

"Alright weepy, which one has the map?" she asked, the boy couldn't answer through sobs but just pointed to the fat boss. Sakura tied the weepy guy to the others while Monoki searched the fat guys bags and Matsuri got curious about the squirming sack. She opened it to find a small desert big cat cub, the thing was hissing and fluffing up its fur and the poor thing was hog tied, its front leg was hurt.

"This things just a baby how could you?" she said and wrestled the thing out of the sack so she could look at its little leg.

"Hey Sakura, you're a medic can you help this little one?" she asked.

"I think so let me see him." Sakura helped Matzuri heal the cubs paw when that was done it just huddled in Matsuri's arms shivering and whimpering.

"I don't think its mother is coming back…" Sakura said.

"Well we can't leave the poor thing look at him he's all fur and bones." Matsuri got some fish that they had caught earlier and pushed a little towards the little cat, it sniffed carefully and nibbled at the fish to test it, then once it decided it was safe devoured the rest of it and purred loudly in Matsuri's lap. Both Sakura and Matsuri got big amine eyes.

"AWWWWWW!!!!"

"That's so cute!" said Monoki, "First you'll find that he is a she and I got bad news, these baka's have the red scroll too."

"Kuso!!" Sakura swore.

"Now what?" asked Matsuri as she continued to stroke the kitten which was the size of a full grown house cat.

"Well, I say we keep the second one just in case and move on it will reduce the competition for the scrolls, plus if we get in a tight spot we can buy our way out with an extra scroll." Monoki said tossing the extra map to Sakura.

"Well you have a point, so shall we move on? I'm getting sick of this guy's crying." She looked over at the guy, tied to his team mates and still blubbering like a baby.

"Yeah, so map mistress which way?" Matsuri asked Monoki as she pulled out the map they had their pencil scribbles and course plotted on, she scowled at the nickname, looking over the map and quickly adding on the corridors they traveled to get here she pointed and said,

"This way will lead us to a chamber where a lot of paths cross over and its near the edge of the outer ring so we got a better chance there."

"Alright then" Matsuri got up with the kitten's rear legs dangling from her arms, it was still purring. "What!? Well we can't leave her here, she's just a baby, plus I think she likes us."

"Yeah that's true. Well?" Sakura added.

"What are you asking me for? I'm not against it, she's cute" Monoki said and stroked the cub, increasing the volume of the purr.

They continued on down the corridor that Monoki had pointed out, the kitten was hitching a ride in Matsuri's backpack, her head and front paws where poking out of the top of the bag she was enjoying this. They reached the next chamber, it was huge, several trees where dotted around the room each one was under a skylight and in the centre of the room was a large pond. Couching in the entrance they determined that no one was there. They darted to the nearest tree and jumped up into its branches to survey the room properly.

"Hey look, over there!" Matsuri hissed to the others. Monoki followed her eye line to a group at the edge of the water.

"Are they asleep?" Monoki asked.

"I don't think so… lets check it out." Sakura said and dropped down from the tree after giving the room a quick look around, there was no one else around.

They made their way around the shore to the fallen three, it was the cocky smoke ninjas team, each had a cup clutched in their hands. Monoki kept watch while Sakura checked them out, Matsuri couched by the water the cub stayed putt in her bag.

"GET AWAY FROM THE WATER!!" Sakura suddenly shouted, the shout startled Matsuri and she lost her balance, Monoki darted forward and grabbed her shoulders pulling her away from the water before she fell in, the cub was shaken loose from her pack and tumbled over her head towards the water. Monoki had over balanced and both she and Matsuri had fallen back on their butts, She shot out the leg that wasn't trapped under Matsuri and managed to get under the cub. The cat did the rest and dug all four sets of claws into her leg to stop from getting wet.

"AAAGGGHHHHH" she quickly retracted her leg, cat and all from over the water. "GETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF!!!!" she hissed rapidly. Matsuri pried off the cat and returned her to the back pack. Monoki clutched her bleeding leg.

"What was that about!?" she demanded from the medic. Sakura held up one of the cups

"Poison" she said simply. "the waters bad here"

"Are they dead?" asked Matsuri

"No, asleep, I'll hazard a guess and say it will leave them like that for a few days" Sakura let the cup drop and went to close up the small cuts on Monoki's leg.

"Hey Matsuri, check and see if they have a map." Monoki said and let Sakura sort out her leg.

"Okay" After a minute of rummaging she came up empty. "Nope, sorry guys, looks like these three where cleared out already, even most of their kunai and food is gone, their canteens are gone and look at all these tracks we aren't the first group to find these three."

"Yeah… guess it was asking a bit much to get a map offa them…" Monoki sighed and stood up, "this is a different trap than the odd wire traps we have come across so far. This means that the closer we get to the centre the more complex and dangerous the traps become. This may not be as easy as we thought."

"I never thought this would be easy." Matsuri piped.

"My point exactly."

* * *

"I'll never get how you two can find this comfortable!" Matsuri complained. They had traveled deeper into the maze and it was now night fall, so they got into a chamber with a tree and jumped up into its branches. The two leaf ninja were nice and comfortable but the sand nin was finding it difficult.

"Well sleep on the ground if you want and be exposed." Sakura prodded Matsuri muttered curses under her breath but soon quieted down even the cub got comfortable lying on Matsuri's stomach.

"What you think we could name her?" Matsuri asked the darkness.

"Dunno, not something stupid like whiskers or fluffy." Answered Monoki.

"I can't think of anything." pouted Sakura from her perch in the dark tree.

"How about 'Cat' for now? We can think of a name for her after the exam." Suggested Monoki through a yawn.

"Yeah okay" answered Matsuri yawning herself, Sakura yawned as well and completed the mexican yawn. They each took turns keeping watch throughout the night. They woke the next morning and decided to get an early start. They where heading down a corridor from the chamber they slept in chosen by spinning a kunai on the ground and after they checked the path on the map started off. It was too quiet so they started talking and Monoki and Sakura got into a bit of a heated discussion.

"Aw come on think about it! Neji and Tenten, they would make a great couple!" Sakura said.

"Well yeah but even IF Tenten did like Neji THAT way I really can't see that guy returning any affection to her. Besides didn't I hear Ino say you two tried to get them together and failed?"

"Well yeah but… Watch it!" Monoki and Matsuri paused mid-step.

"Me or her?" Matsuri said hovering on one foot.

"All of us, look" they stepped back a few steps the ground in front was different.

"Pressure pads" Matsuri said, "Hidden in the sand, lets walk along the wall."

"Yeah okay" focusing chakra to their feet they mounted the wall and walked along it, Matsuri held Cat in her arms because she had to close the zip on her bag.

'KLUNK, cerrrzzzzzuuuuuuu'

"HEADS UP!!" just as they were making progress across the wall two huge buzzsaw blades came from with in the walls and came flying lengthwise along the wall as if who ever set this trap knew they would walk along the wall. The girls jumped off the wall and twisted to land on the ground. Monoki and Sakura sank into the soft sand while Matsuri who was used to such terrain back flipped away. The floor under the two leaf fell away and they fell into a pit.

"Hey you two okay!?" Matsuri shouted down the hole which was a good 20 feet deep as the buzzsaw grinded to a stop next to her.

"Yeah I think so, Monoki?" Sakura said more to herself.

"Ow…" Sakura looked up the heads of Matsuri and Cat and shouted up

"Yeah we're okay, looks like those walls responded to our chakra, I don't wanna risk that again you got a rope?"

"Hang on!" one head disappeared from the edge, Cat continued to stare down at the trapped girls "okay I got a rope but wait there till I find something to secure it to!" she called back.

"Yeah okay we'll just stay here then!" Monoki shouted back.

"You can be a right sarcastic bitch you know that?" Sakura said to Monoki.

"I know, great isn't it?" Monoki grinned. A dull rumble sounded around them, the two girls looked at each other.

"Please tell me that was your stomach…" Monoki almost pleaded to Sakura. Sakura gulped and shook her head. The rumble started again this time it continued.

"Sakura…"

"What?"

"The room is getting SMALLER!" Sakura looked at the walls to her right and left, they were slowly moving in, they looked at each other again then up to the top.

"MATSURI!!!" they both screamed, but she didn't appear.

"Aw FUCK THIS! Sakura we either run up the wall or be crushed I don't think it can get much worse even if these walls do respond to chakra."

"SHIT! Right okay! Lets go!" they both bolted up the wall but just as they neared the top a metal grate slammed across the opening, both girls ran into it and ended up back at the bottom of the hole.

"YOU JUST HAD TO SAY 'THINGS COULDN'T GET WORSE' DIDN'T YOU!!!" Sakura shouted at Monoki over the rumble which was getting louder.

"SHOUTING AT ME WON'T GET US OUT OF HERE!!! Wait wasn't this hole deeper?"

"AW JUST FUCKING GREAT THE FLOOR IS RISING!!!!" Sakura was nearly panicking.

"MATSURI!!!!" they both shirked again.

"I'm trying!!! The grates not moving!!" Matzuri had been knocked back by the grate and had hit her head on the wall, dizzy and a little confused she was trying her best to unhinge the grate but the head wound made it hard.

"Kuso!!!" (A/n I am aware that kuso means fuck so …yeah… don't complain) Monoki shouted "Right you get that wall I'll get this one"

"Right" Sakura dug in her feet and pushed against the wall, Monoki jammed kunai into the small gap between the moving wall and the immobile one, their efforts slowed the walls down but the floor kept rising.

"How is that even possible!!" Sakura shouted.

"It doesn't matter how all that matters it that it is!" Monoki shot back. The gears pushing the walls groaned and the walls where still trying to close in and they gave small lurches inward. The two girls where slowly being pushed back to back.

"SHIIITTTTTT!" Monoki shouted she gave up pushing the wall and stood in the middle of the rapidly shrinking room and carried out a series of complex hand signs, ending in the dragon sign.

"Elemental Dragon! Earth!" A solid rock spike shot up from the ground split in two and took the form of two dragons. Each rock dragon slammed against the moving walls and slowed or even stopped their progress.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Shouted Sakura jumping away from the rock dragon that was straining against the wall next to her.

"I CAN'T DO THIS FOR LONG GET THE FUCK UP THERE AND PUNCH OUT THAT FUCKING GRATE!" Monoki shouted at her over the groaning of the gears and the cracking of the rock dragons.

"ANY TIME THAT SUITS YOU SAKURA!!!" she shouted a little more urgently, the sweat was beginning to form on her brow.

"RIGHT!" She sprinted half crouching half standing up the wall because there was no room. She threw a punch at the grate which Matsuri had almost completely unhinged and because of her super human strength it flew up into the air. Sakura turned and panting shouted down the hole.

"Right get up here now!"

"Okay I'm comiSAKURA LOOK OUT!" Monoki screamed. The metal grate was coming back down but Matsuri had tackled Sakura out of the way and it crashed down missing both the girls.

'CRUNCH'

The two walls finally came together with the sound of Monoki's stone dragons being crushed, the grate's impact kicked up a lot of dust and blinded the two girls and even Cat covered her little eyes.

"MONOKI!" squealed Matsuri while Sakura choked on dust. The dust settled enough so they could see there at the top of where the two walls met was the head and forearms of one of Monoki's stone dragons. On its head was Monoki her hand still clasped in the dragon hand sign and she was panting heavily. She released her hands and jumped down from the decapitated dragon as she landed the dragon crumbled behind her.

"Well… that was fun" she grinned then collapsed.

* * *

She woke a little later, they where in one of the large chambers this one had no skylight and was lit only by a few torches on the pillars that lined the room, Sakura was seeing to Matsuri's head, her back to Monoki. Cat was pawing at Monoki's glasses which where on the floor beside her. Monoki moved swiftly plucking the glasses from Cat and pushed them on, she quickly regretted the sudden movement. She gritted her teeth against the pain that flared in leg.

"Meow" Cat prodded closer and got Sakura's attention.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah fine, what's wrong with my leg?" she asked pulling herself over to lean against a pillar.

"You landed on it pretty hard when we fell down the pit. But it's just a bruise it'll throb for a few days but it will be fine, no breaks." Sakura smiled.

"What happened to Matsuri? She okay?"

"Yeah just a bump on the head she'll be fine after a sleep. What's wrong?" Once Monoki heard Matsuri was okay her eyebrows knitted together.

"Did you take off my glasses?" she asked.

"Yeah I just set them aside, why?"

"Did you see my eyes?" she asked almost glaring at Sakura.

"No" Sakura answered and leant back a bit, Monoki was very protective of her real identity and Sakura decided that maybe it wasn't the best idea to tell her that she knew. Once she said this Monoki seemed to relax then looked around.

"Where are we?"

"Just in the next chamber, the one we where heading to when we fell into that trap. It would be best if we rested until you regain your chakra and Matsuri can walk in a straight line. I'll get something together to eat." Monoki let out a hallow laugh and nodded. Monoki rested against the pillar and stroked Cat on her knee while Sakura got the food ready, Matsuri came round not long after. The apprentice team and their little mascot ate the meal quickly and moved on. They headed down another corridor towards and open chamber near the edge of their map. Their logic was that a number of passages joined there so if they where patient another team would come to them. Cat who was trotting slightly ahead of the group stopped, sniffed and cocked her furry head.

"What is it girl?" asked Matsuri, Cat turned and meowed quietly.

"Hear that?" Sakura said, from down the hall drifted,

"this is all YOUR fault!"

"How it is my fault, you tripped the trap"

"You had the map!!"

"The map doesn't pin point the dam traps."

"Will you two shut up and help me get outta this!" Sakura slapped her hand to her head.

"Its those three idiots…"

"Who?" asked Matsuri.

"Their leaf genin team, they do nothing but argue and fight. They did that the whole way to Suna" Sakura led the way down the halls to the room. Across the hall was the genin team squished together in awkward positions in a net hanging from a tree.

"Sakura-san!!" the lone boy shouted,

"eh?" the two girls twisted their heads to look.

"Hey! little help?" the guy asked or rather pleaded the girls consent arguing was hurting his head.

"Well that would depend…" Sakura said evilly.

"On what!?" demanded a red headed girl who was stuck upside down, the blood had rushed to her head making her face as red as her hair.

"You got a map?"

"Two" piped the dark haired girl earning a sharp nudge from the red head.

"shutup!"

"Oh you got both maps?" Matsuri asked. The two girls started fighting again and it was the henpecked boy that answered.

"Well we have two but their both the same."

"Doubles? Which you got blue or red?" Monoki asked.

"blue" he answered.

"will you shut up!" the red head shouted and kicked the boy. The apprentice team looked at each other in disbelief.

"It can't be this easy..." muttered Matsuri.

"Well even if we get both maps we still gotta get the scroll." Monoki replied.

"Well yeah, so what will we help them out or just take the scroll?" Sakura said

"HEY" shouted the dark haired girl, she was ignored.

"We may as well help them, they are from our village…" Monoki pointed out.

"Speak for yourself" Matsuri shot in. the three girls shrugged.

"All right heres the deal, we let you down and you give us one of your blue maps." Sakura said to the three in the net.

"What's in it for us!?" demanded the red head.

"Will you shut up! In case you haven't noticed we're not really in a position to made demands!" the boy shouted, the girls where taken aback, he never talked back.

"Oh I like him" said Matsuri. "That earned you points kid."

"Anyway, we happen to have two red maps I say we have a straight trade. Sound good?"

"Sounds great!" the boy agreed. Monoki found the anchor rope for the net and cut it, the boy landed on his feet only for the two girls to land on top of him.

"Ow" They swapped maps and crouched in their own teams to plan their next move. Monoki pulled out their pencil marked map and then opened the blue map, in the third roll of the scroll the paper changed to clear plastic on which the centre of the maze was printed. She laid the clear map on top of the outer ring so they had a complete map.

"KUSO!" Monoki cursed.

"What?"

"There's no over lap, no point of reference, there is a single long corridor the whole way around the intersection between both maps, this could go any way up." She twisted the map around to show that there was definite way for it to go.

"Crap, well we'll just have to do the same as when we came it then." Sakura pointed out

"Yeah" Monoki said sadly, she knew it was two easy.

"Well look on the bright side was can use this corridor to get to a scroll room." Matsuri pointed out.

"Yeah, we'll worry about the centre later for now we gotta pick out a room and get moving it's a race now." They packed up their gear, Monoki took charge of both maps.

"So ano, you guys know where you're going?" asked the red head.

"Yup, do you?" Sakura replied,

"Well, yeah, of course, but if you could just tell us where you're going…"

"Do you even know where you are on the map?" Matsuri asked them picking up Cat and setting her in her pack.

"…no…" the red head replied quietly.

"Yeah well okay we could just NOW" Sakura shouted and all three sprinted down a corridor to their right, they helped them enough and in all fairness they where still racing against each other.

They stopped running once they reached the place where the maps intersected, it was a large corridor lit with torches hanging from the roof the whole way around.

"This ring must completely encircle the centre of the maze it means you can still get confused or lost even if you have both maps." Monoki pointed out. "But at least they do offer a little help," She pointed to painted signs above the proper doorways, it was either 'outer ring' in red paint or 'centre' in blue,

"why do you think the ground is grooved like this?" Sakura asked. The floor sloped into the center of the hall way making a dip in the corridor.

"dunno water run off maybe?"

"in the desert? Yeah right, well I don't like it. Lets just get outta this corridor, which way?" Matsuri said, even Cat echoed her insecurity in a meow.

"This way third path way to our right, we need to double back into the outer ring." Monoki lead the way at a quick pace, almost at a jog all three of them where very iffy about this open corridor. A rumble almost like thunder echoed up the corridor and got louder. Stone spikes shot up and blocked the door ways as the rumble reached its peak.

"Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!" Monoki shouted at the maze as if it was planning this.

"RUN" Matsuri shouted and again they where caught in a trap.

_End Chapter 26_

* * *

_Here's the deal people when you're tired annoyed and at three in the morning its hard to think of a name for a desert lion cub so…_

_**Here's where you lot come it, you get to NAME Cat the coolest sounding name will be selected from your suggestions for the cat and entered into the next chapter.**_

_Also thanks to dragonman 80 for the idea of the cat did it work out how you pictured? Lol_

_**So give us your suggestions and read and review please and thankyou!!**_


	27. Chapter 27: The Second Exam: Conclusion

_Erm…. I got slightly carried away on this chapter and was longer than I expected….. all well u'll love it!!_

_**So what happens then? Do they pass?**_

_You gotta read and see, also the results are in and Cat has been named at the end of the chapter so YAY. I would also like to blame any delays on an addiction to the Oblivion game_

* * *

**The Second Exam: Conclusion**

It was like a scene out of the old Indiana Jones movies, a giant boulder rumbled down the corridor towards them, the grove on the floor kept it rolling and it was fast.

"This is SO unfair!" shouted Matsuri she was beginning to pant as she grabbed Cat from the floor and putting him in her back pack zipped it closed, Cat gladly cowered in the bag without protest.

"Tell me about it!" shouted back Monoki as she leapt over a set of spikes that had shot up from the ground in front of her. These spikes shot up at random intervals up to about waist height and would retract just as quickly just before the boulder rolled over them. It was like a hurdles race except they didn't know where the next hurdle was coming from.

"This is getting ridiculous!!" shouted Sakura, who was also panting, only Monoki still had some breath in her and that was only because of the harsh training Takara had put her through and for the first time Monoki was thankful that she did. They could not even leave the corridor because the doorways where all blocked by spikes, they probably fell away after the boulder past but that didn't really help.

"That's it!! I'm fucking sick of this place and its fucking traps!" Screamed Sakura, a set of spikes shot up in front of her, she skidded to a halt and pushed off the spikes back towards the boulder.

"SAKURA!" Both Matsuri and Monoki shouted but they needn't have worried because Sakura slammed her gloved fist into the rock and it exploded, Monoki and Matsuri skidded to a stop and covered their heads to protect themselves from flying debris.

"That worked…" Matsuri broke the silence after the last of the dust had settled, the girls laughed weakly.

"Can we get out of this corridor now please?" she continued. They back tracked a bit to get to the door they were meant to go into, when they ran past it Monoki put a score in the stone wall so even then there was a good distance to back track it was easy enough to spot. Even though the boulder was gone they still walked down the corridor quickly even though it was not needed, Matsuri didn't even let Cat out of the bag (A/N no pun intended) until they were in the relative safety of the smaller corridors.

"How about we find some where to rest before we try and find that scroll?" Sakura almost pleaded to the other two.

"yeah its nearly midnight anyway…" Matsuri chimed, Cat echoed her tired tone from the floor.

"How do you know?" asked Monoki.

"Glow in the dark watch" she answered flashing her wrist the dim green dots and numbers glowed dully.

"Oh, well after that it would be stupid not to catch our breath." Monoki continued on and dug out the two maps and opened up the red one, she scanned the paths up ahead.

"Looks like there's a small room, just down the hall, it's near enough the scroll room too so if anyone else comes we will hear them."

"Sounds good to me lets just get somewhere to sleep." Sakura started off down the hall. The room they choose was very close to the scroll room and there was only one way in so it was safe enough to sleep there. Sakura was asleep as soon as she was comfortable, Matsuri and Monoki sat for a while playing rock paper scissors over who would take the first watch, Monoki did rock, Matsuri did paper.

"I win rock rips through paper." Monoki said and lay down, Matsuri looked from her hand to Monoki and thought for a second.

"Hey!"

"It was worth a try…" Monoki sighed and let Matsuri sleep, Monoki tried to stay awake by playing with Cat who seemed to be wide awake, then again, riding around in a back pack all day doesn't burn a lot of energy. She skittered stones across the floor and watched Cat clatter after it.

When ever they woke they got a quick bite to eat they moved on to get the scroll. They walked on slowly, mindful for the traps they where bound to encounter which they did, a number of pressure pads, trip wires, swinging maces and a very close call with a dart trap.

"Think they're making up for something?" Sakura asked, pulling a dart that was embedded on the leather strap of her backpack.

"I reckon it's because the maze is so big and the fact that it is a maze makes it unlikely we would encounter many teams so they would have to do something to make it hard." Matsuri reasoned.

"Oh so the other teams, the maze and the animals aren't bad enough?" Monoki muttered.

"Seems not"

"Yeah well we're only halfway through the test now." Monoki said while she disabled a trip wire with an explosive tag.

"how you work that out?" Matsuri asked as she worked on the other end of the same trap.

"Well we found our way through the maze to the separation ring, we got the other half of the map, now all we need to do is get the scroll and get to the centre of the maze." She explained and carefully cut the trip wire leaving the way clear while Matsuri disabled the trigger on the tag, Sakura was told to stay back, she was their only medical nin and the other two didn't want to risk her getting blown to bits, she could fix them, they couldn't fix her.

"There, wire's sorted. The tag?"

"Just a sec… done." Matsuri ripped the disabled tag into quarters, they moved on, Cat earned her keep by sniffing out some of the traps and warning the girls. They continued on like this for a while.

"Wait, hold it!" Monoki said suddenly and looked behind her,

"What?" both girls asked.

"That right turn shouldn't be there…" Monoki pointed further down the hall to a right turn.

"Again, what?" Sakura asked.

"Look we missed the room…" Monoki whipped out the map again and pointed to a corridor, "This is where we slept last night," she traced her finger along the pathway, "this is where we dodged the darts, here's where Cat nearly got squished by the mace, and this is were we just disabled that tag trap. It's past the scroll room"

"Hey it is, how could we miss it? There must have been a door or something" Sakura looked back up the corridor.

"We gotta head back then." Matsuri started back up the hall, at least they had removed all the traps so they had room to figure this out.

"Right about here is where it should be." Monoki stopped in the middle of a corridor.

"There's nothing here…" Sakura scanned the walls along both sides of the hallway, no difference.

"hang on…" Matsuri jogged down the darkened hallway and wrestled a burning torch from a bracket on the wall and came jogging back bringing the light with her.

"smart……" muttered Sakura, neither she or Monoki had considered getting more light, "Hey look" with the increased light came more detail, the rough wall was the same the whole way down the corridor but on right hand wall was two small round impressions.

"What are those?"

"I've seen those patterns some where before." Matsuri mused to herself. Monoki looked over the map again.

"There has to be a clue here somewhere" Matsuri looked over to Monoki, she snapped the map out of her hands and rolled it up.

"Hey!" Monoki tried to grab it back but Matsuri poked it into one of the impressions it fitted perfectly.

"Eh?" Monoki was confused as was Sakura.

"I remembered the examiner said that both maps would be needed to get the scroll, I just noticed there are raised impressions on the base of the scroll's centre pole."

"So there is…" Sakura said looking at the pattern on the bottom of the blue scroll.

"The maps themselves are keys." Matsuri almost wanted to laugh at Monoki, she was in charge of the maps the entire time and she didn't even notice the impressions.

"ready?" Sakura asked and poised the blue scroll over the other impression, the others nodded, she pushed the scroll into the hole, there was a loud clunk and a crack but the wall in front of them didn't open up as they expected instead the floor gave way.

"AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH" the girls screamed.

"RRRRAAAOOOOWWWW" Cat yowled.

The drop was only six feet so it didn't hurt any of them expect for several pinprick claw marks on Sakura, Cat had grabbed onto the closest thing which was her leg.

"Ow…"

"Matsuri, I can't breathe…" Monoki wheezed from the bottom of the pile.

"Sorry, everyone okay?" Matsuri asked pulling Monoki to her feet.

"Er yeah I'm fine" Muttered Sakura after detaching the shivering Cat. They had fallen into a small box room that led under the wall of the corridor above them and into a large square room at the other end of the room was a pillar with a scroll standing up right on the top. The three girls stood at the entrance of the room.

"I'm not going there, this looks too easy." Monoki said and poked her head in the room and looked about the walls where completely smooth as was the floor, and it had a thin coating of fine sand, much finer than any of the stuff in the above maze.

"Gas vents…" Sakura muttered, she was looking up at the ceiling.

"It's rigged to go off, once you stand on the platform the pillars on… and I'm going to guess that's not the only place its rigged. Look you can see the trigger on the scroll holder, if the scroll is lifted that arm will drop and set off the trap. So, we have to get the scroll without letting that trigger arm drop and without going into the room." Monoki said.

"Last time I checked none of us had the power of telekinesis." Matzuri said with a cynical face, Monoki simply raised an eyebrow at her.

"Oh" Matsuri caught onto what Monoki had planned.

"Oh? Why oh?" Sakura felt like she missed something. Matsuri reached over her shoulder and twisted the top off the cylinder on her back.

"Oh!" Sakura finally caught on.

The three girls backed up into the box room and let Matsuri do her stuff. First she used a small amount of her sand to use her third eye jutsu to check out the room. Then using her specially chakra infused sand she slowly lifted the trigger arm away from the scroll, then the cloud of sand encircled the scroll and slowly lifted it out of its holder and returned it to the small box room into Sakura's waiting hands.

"Got it!" Sakura said with triumph. Monoki clapped Matsuri on the back and Matsuri returned the sand to her tube and dropped her control, grinning. She had, however, forgotten about the sand holding the trigger arm. It dropped and the door to the square room slammed closed and the hiss of gas sounded from within the large square room, luckily they where all still in the little box room.

"Ah, we… we should probably get outta here." Monoki jerked her thumb towards the trapdoor above them she hopped up herself and plucked the maps from the wall, Sakura took charge of the scroll and Matsuri picked up Cat and jumped up out of the hole. They returned to the dead end room in which they had slept in earlier on and celebrated by allowing themselves to partake in the chocolate they brought with them.

"Great but one question though…" Said Matsuri as she munched on the choccy.

"What?"

"How did you know the scroll was in that room, I mean we past by three other scroll rooms to get there" she asked tossing another piece of chocolate into her mouth. Monoki nearly dropped her own sweets.

"Well I uh…." Sakura also stopped eating her eyes widened, she knew how Monoki did it, with her Byakugan while they weren't looking, they couldn't see her eyes but they would have been able to see the protruding veins on the side of her face.

"it was simple math"

"Eh?" Matsuri looked over at Sakura and she continued.

"Everything else in the maze is completely symmetrical, the gates, the scroll rooms, so it would only stand to reason that the four real rooms would be in the four most corners of the maze."

"The maze is round Sakura…" Matzuri argued, Sakura sighed and opened the maps.

"Look if you draw a perfect and scale square and set it into the maze along the correct axis it will only line up with four rooms, see simple math, right Monoki?"

"Er… yeah that's it…" Monoki had gone cross eyed with Sakura's explanation like Matsuri but agreed anyway.

"So anyway, we got the maps and the scroll all we gotta do now is get to the centre. Shall we" Monoki said changing the subject quickly.

"Alright then" Matsuri quickly munched the last of the tasty treat and whistled to Cat, she came trotting along the room and rubbed her head against Matsuri's knee, purring loudly. They headed off into the long separation corridor, this time minus the boulder.

"Well it all starts again with the blue map and you can bet there's more traps in there."

"Not to mention other teams, there will be some waiting to try and steal our scrolls because they couldn't find their own." Sakura said.

"What?" Matsuri asked.

"It happened in our last exam, people waited at the finish line to steal from the other teams who have to pass by them to win." Sakura explained.

"Oh"

"Yeah so hands on kunai, keep your eyes and ears open, this is were the test really begins." Monoki added and started into the doorway into the centre of the maze, Sakura followed close behind her with a kunai in her hand just incase.

"Wasn't that a little dramatic?" Matsuri asked chasing after the girls.

* * *

There were no more wide open skylights in the centre of the maze, so it was almost completely dark except for the torches on the walls, and the large chambers where wide and empty, no more vegetation, no more animals, just silence. The air was heavy and still, no breezes blew gently down the halls like the outer rooms, but a coldness seemed to almost seep into them from the walls and floor and the silence was deafening. They walked in single file Matsuri had the sharpest eyes so led the way, Sakura with her reflexes could quickly respond to an attack from either side, Monoki was bringing up the rear, Sakura chanced a glance behind herself and saw the very edge of the tell tale bugling veins showing from behind the glasses. Monoki never did like dark closed in spaces and so risked using her blood line trait, but there was a strange aura in the maze, she could barely make out the shapes of anything behind a wall, whatever it was it made her Byakugan almost useless. The silence was so complete that the tiniest sound was like an air horn sudden and loud to their straining ears, and each small sound make all four of the group jump. They where jumpy, and they had good reason to be they where being watched. After an hour they stopped while Matsuri tried to pinpoint their position on the map Sakura and Matsuri stood back to back watching the room even little Cat was on guard duty. The wall torches where few and far between so they where mostly surrounded in darkness, Sakura had a little medics flashlight in her medical kit but they decided it wasn't practical to use it in these conditions, it would be too bright in the blackness and be like a beacon, it was for emergencies only, the others agreed.

"I know where we are, look we need to go along these corridors to get to the centre," the three ninjas quickly burned the map and the pencil drawn path into their memories, there would be very little time to keep checking the map in this part of the maze. Cat hissed softly and got the girls attention, Monoki quickly stowed the blue map and they turned to face the room. They were hunched in a corner of a large room with their backs to a wall so they could see the rest of the room, but the only light was four burning torches on the four corners of the room so the centre was in complete darkness.

"Someone's close, we should get away from the light, I don't want to run into anyone here." Monoki said.

"I feel a presence too." Monoki could sense chakra because of her blood line trait, Sakura could be cause of her medical training and Matsuri could because she was using her sand as a medium to locate other chakra signatures, but it was so faint neither of them could pinpoint it, and after a moment decided that the owner was nowhere near them and continued on their way keeping to the shadows and staying quiet. They were, however, wrong the owners of those chakra signs were closer than they thought and followed them across the room from high up on the ceiling. The further they walked down the corridors they more they began to feel uneasy, they could hear the screams of another team echoing down the empty halls from some distant part of the maze which really didn't help their morale.

They entered another large hall with a few unsteady pillars reaching into the darkness above them.

"Monoki, we got a problem…" Matsuri whispered from the front of their line formation. Even though it was only a whisper it seemed like a shout had shattered the silence.

"What is it?" Monoki whispered back walking up to Matsuri who shot out her arm stopping Monoki from walking any further. It was a good thing too because just in front of them the floor dropped away. Monoki crouched at the edge.

"How deep you think it is?" Sakura whispered.

"Lets find out…" Monoki lifted a fist sized rock from the floor and held it at arms length over the edge and after pausing for a second let it drop, she counted silently to herself and waited for the impact. It never came, Matsuri gulped.

"Okay safe to assume if you fall in there you're dead." She said.

"How far across?" Sakura asked Matsuri, she squinted into the darkness.

"Looks around 500 meters, we can't jump that, hey that looks like a bridge over there." She pointed further down the hall.

"Yeah, I assumed this blank spot on the map was an open room but it was this underground canyon, that bridge it's the closest crossing open to us." Matsuri said, "The only problem…" She stood up and brushed off her legs and placing one hand on one of her sword hilts turned around, "…is we're not alone."

Behind them in the shadows were three figures.

"Clever girl, aren't we?" whispered a deep voice from the shadows. "Well let's see if you know the answer to this question… Do you have the three scrolls? Think carefully before answering." Monoki got into a fighting stance, the other two followed her example, Monoki partly drew the blade she was griping and Sakura adjusted her gloves while sand circled slowly above Matsuri as she twirled the dart of her jouhyou.

"We do… but you're not getting them." Monoki hissed dangerously, she was echoed by Cat hissing and spiting at her feet.

"WRONG ANSWER!!" the deep voice shouted, two shadows on the sides of the group pulled out a number of tubes and smacked them to their legs them threw them to the floor behind them. The white flares burst into life and blinded the girls. The light revealed that their enemies where cloud ninja. While the girls where disoriented the three clouds charged in. Sakura rolled to the right, Matsuri, the left and Monoki flipped forward over the guy rushing her. Now used to the bright light they were able to face their attackers head on. One charged at Monoki with steel tiger claws on his knuckles and swiped viscously at her and she deflected them with one blade and tried to strike back with her other blade. Sakura was caught with a guy with a short sharp dagger and met him with an equally sharp kunai. Matsuri's guy liked to keep his distance and was throwing poison tipped senbon (needles) she fought back try trying to rope him with her jouhyou while her sand protected her from any needles that came too close. Monoki was having a tough time with her guy he was getting too close for comfort, he kept getting under or past Monoki's twin blades and the sharp claws on his brass knuckles where getting closer, as short as her swords where they where too long for this type of opponent. Monoki back flipped away from him and quickly sheathed her blades and drawing a kunai charged back into the fight, this guy wasn't very big but his speed could almost rival Lee's so Monoki had to resort to something she was trying to avoid throughout the entire exam, the gentle fist fighting style. Adopting the correct stance she focused chakra to her hands and attacked, she knocked off his attacks by striking his arms and while she did it she aimed for the charka points in his arms and legs, her Byakugan had improved to the point were she could now see the 361 pin-head sized 'opening points' on an opponents body and strike them effectively and cut off the enemies chakra circulation. Quickly picking up on the danger of her strikes the cloud ninja retreated a few paces, looking from the red marks on his arms to her.

"A Hyuuga!?" he whispered to himself, then shouted "Hey boss we got a GRK!" Monoki rushed forward and struck his neck with her hand in a clawed position, a move she had developed with Takara, she flooded certain muscles with a concentrated burst of chakra, and disabled it completely instead of just cutting off the chakra supply, in this case she struck his voice box to stop him finishing his sentence. That move wouldn't have won the fight but it stopped him shouting out her secret. He staggered back and growled angrily, it was all he could do, and pulled out a scroll, nipping his thumb he flicked open the scroll and drew his thumb across the seal on the paper and in a puff of smoke a modified halberd appeared, throwing the scroll aside he grabbed the weapon, the six foot pole was made of strong yet flexible bamboo and the head of the blade was more a sword than an axe, but he had released the danger of close quarters combat and planned on keeping his distance. Monoki charged in and he lunged with the blade of the halberd, she spun around the blade and kept going but he pulled the blade around in a deadly slash forcing Monoki to jump back out of reach again, drawing a kunai she kept up the attack and threw the kunai at him he ducked it and swept his weapon around himself in a wide arc the blade flashed in the flare light and again Monoki was forced back. Thinking quickly she started running around him in a large circle just out of his range, he spun quickly to keep up with her, with out warning she suddenly back pedaled, he continued to turn for a second before he caught on, but by then Monoki was inside his range and nearly on top of him. In a swift movement he drew the pole in a sharp move under his arm and the end of the pole slammed into Monoki's stomach, she wheezed and fell on one knee coughing. He took his chance to swing his pole around using his body as a pivot point and aimed the sharp blade for her head. Monoki focused chakra to her hand, it was so concentrated it was visible as a dull white glow, with this hand she struck at the blade. The white chakra was so intense the sharp blade was chipped and the bamboo pole bent and snapped. The cloud was left with a three foot bit of wood and a very pissed off Hyuuga with glowing hands.

"Bye bye" with that she slapped at his arms, thighs, stomach and finally the head it was the disabling combo Takara had taught her but with a charged up gentle fist style it proved near fatal, the cloud shinobi fell to the ground and didn't move. While Monoki was fighting Sakura was having a hard time with her guy as well, his little dagger was lightening fast several times he nicked her, ripping her clothes and in one strike one of the pouches on her backpack. The bag ripped open and the mission scroll fell out and clattered across the floor. Both leaf and cloud dived after it and both grabbed it with one had and attacked the other with their free hands and legs. This how ever didn't last long once Sakura landed one punch on the guy, he was propelled away and skidded to a halt holding where she punched him.

"She's got the scroll!" the two remaining cloud focused their attacks on Sakura.

"It's three against two why don't you take your injured and leave" Sakura spat it the two cloud.

"Three against two eh? We'll see" with that they both created two shadow clones of themselves so now it was six clouds against three leaf. Neither of the apprentice team were able to create shadow clones that effectively, Matsuri could make sand clones but not enough sand around as the ground was now bare rock, Monoki could make earth ones but she seriously doubted she would have enough chakra to keep it up. So it was two on one, two clones of the guy Sakura was fighting charged her while the other four split up and attacked Monoki and Matsuri. While Sakura deflected knife strikes with her Kunai the other clone jumped on her from behind and grabbed the scroll from her hand then tossed it to one of the guys Matsuri was fighting. Matsuri crafted her sand into an arrow and propelled it towards the catcher, the dart passed right through him and with a grunt and a pop he was gone in a puff of smoke and scroll was again in the air, another clone of the same guy who was fighting Monoki broke off to catch it but it was intercepted by Cat catching it in her mouth, who then using her little feline gifts avoided capture by jumping wriggling and scratching. At this stage each girl had dispatched at least one of the clones that where attacking them leaving two real clouds and a clone. Cat was backing up to the edge of the drop away from a cloud ninja who threw kunai at the kitten, Monoki dived over and scooped up Cat and rolled out of the way. Sakura knocked her opponent against one of the pillars and threw a punch at him.

"SAKURA, NO!" Monoki shouted. The cloud ducked and Sakura punched the pillar instead. The pillar crumbled and the roof it had supported groaned and large chunks of the ceiling fell to the ground, the while chamber seemed to shake violently and everyone lost their balance, the cloud that had attacked Cat rolled out of the way of a falling slab of rock and bumped into Monoki with Cat in her arms and all three fell over the edge, the cloud disappeared in a puff of smoke, a clone, leaving Monoki and Cat to plummet into the darkness.

"MONOKI!!!!" screamed Matsuri when she saw her fall, while she was distracted the cloud delivered an uppercut to her gut and she staggered back, Sakura was also disabled in the confusion and they staggered back to back facing the new batch in shadow clones that surrounded them.

"Now what!?" Sakura asked.

"Well after what they did to Monoki I say we kill the bastards!" Matsuri shouted at the clones.

"SHANA DIYO!!" (hell yeah) both girls pulled out kunai in both hands and got ready to attack but something stopped the fight. A monstrous roar sounded from the canyon followed by the sound of a swift wind, a tongue of flame erupted from the deep crevasse and died away just before a green dragon shot up from the hole circled above them.

"Pusa-sama. There! Aim for the clones!" Monoki was standing surfer style just behind the dragons head, where as Cat was clinging tightly to the dragons head. The dragon laughed loudly.

"Then hold on little Kohai" then dived sharply and letting out a huge burst of flame encircled the two girls and destroying almost all of the clones, Monoki jumped down and dispatched two clones which had lunged forward to attack the girls.

"When Pusa-sama comes down grab on and hold on!" she instructed them, Pusa banked sharply in the air and dived towards them. Pusa slowed down and Sakura and Matsuri jumped on and held on tight while Monoki held off the remaining clones, Pusa banked and dived again this time not slowing down at all, Monoki jumped and landed on the fast moving dragon and standing surfer style directed the dragon to take them to the centre of the maze. As Pusa the green dragon turned to head towards the right corridor she spat another bout of flames at the cloud ninja for good measure. Sakura and Matsuri where laying on their stomachs with their arms wrapped tightly around the dragons sides, either even wanted to attempt to stand like Monoki was doing. Monoki shouted out directions to the dragon.

"Think you can get us there Pusa-sama?"

"Of course now hold on, high speeds and tight corners this will be fun" she bellowed happily and dived for the smaller corridor. The next half hour was the most terrifying thing in Matsuri's and Sakura's lives, the dragon flew down the dark corridors at a blinding speed and took the corners without even slowing down and amazingly without ever clipping the walls. What amazed them more was how Monoki was standing and leaning into the turns with the dragon. Pusa spun in a tight circle almost back on herself to land.

"I can go no further, the corridors are getting too small for me." She told Monoki and she settled on the ground to let the passengers off. Sakura sort of slid off and sat on the ground Matsuri jumped off and got far away from the dragon, Monoki pried Cat from Pusa's head and stepped off the dragon.

"Thanks for your help Pusa-sama." Monoki said to the dragon and bowed to Pusa.

"You are safe now little dragon-friend, that is all that is important." Pusa bared her teeth in a smile which could have been mistaken for a snarl if you didn't know the dragons. "Safe journey" Pusa said and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"You guys okay?" Monoki asked the other two as she set Cat down, she darted straight to Matsuri's backpack.

"Never… Again!" Sakura panted from her place on the floor, Matsuri looked almost ready to kiss the ground.

"How the hell could you stay standing on that thing?" Matsuri asked.

"It's the same as surfing, not that hard…" they noticed now that Monoki was breathing rather heavily, she was sweating and stood with a slumped figure, she was exhausted.

"You can surf?" Sakura asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah learned last month so that I could do that." Monoki said as though it was no big deal.

"Okay whatever, I'm sick of this place how far are we from the centre." Sakura said pushing herself to her shaky feet.

"Not that far now, see." Monoki held out the map, her hands were shaking violently.

"Hey Monoki you need to rest for a while." Sakura said.

"Yeah, you're a wreck, you should sleep for a while." Matsuri added, Sakura pushed down on Monoki's shoulders to force her to sit, she didn't get much resistance.

"Come on, doctors orders." Sakura crouched down next to her, but Monoki was already asleep.

"Will she be okay?"

"Yeah she just used up all her chakra, we'll let her rest for a while then with a solider pill she at least be able to get to the centre." Sakura said as she lowered her team mate to a lying position and pushed a backpack under her head.

"But still I think we need to recover from that as well, I nearly wet myself…" she shuddered.

"Tell me about it… hungry?" While Monoki rested the others saw to their own wounds and got something ready to eat and Sakura looked over the map, it was true they were just under a kilometer from the centre.

* * *

Monoki woke up after a few hours but she was still pretty weak, Sakura gave her a solider pill so she was at least able to stand under her own power and after they all ate they continued on. The path way was winding and confusing at stages, it was the same as it was before the clouds attacked, quiet, still, dark and creepy. The vein on Sakura's forehead got bigger and bigger until,

"AGAGAAHAHHH!!!! I'M SICK OF THIS PLACE!! I WANT OUTTA HERE!!!"

"Will you calm down it's only about a quarter of a kilometer left…" Monoki sweat dropped at the pink haired girls ranting.

"Well yeah but with all these winding corridors it's more like two" Matsuri said, she had taken over the map as Monoki wasn't really in the condition for it.

"AAAGHHGHGHG! Sakura screamed again, in frustration.

"It's not like there's any short cuts here Sakura." Matsuri shot, she was getting short tempered and she waved the map at Sakura. Sakura pulled on her gloves.

"Then let's MAKE one!"

"Whoa! Hold on you remember last time you did that." Matsuri said.

"Well she has a point all of us want out of here, and a straight line is the quickest ways, plus that was a high chamber, these are small corridors the rest of the wall with hold up the weight." Monoki said.

"YEAH!! Okay so which ways the centre?"

"That way, but are you sure about that weight thing." Matsuri pointed to the wall on the left.

"No…" said Monoki as Sakura swung at the wall, bursting a hole in it.

"See no collapsing roof, let's go." Sakura lead the way through the hole Monoki followed.

"Isn't this cheating?" Matsuri asked stepping through the gap.

"No one said anything about not busting down walls." Monoki said as Sakura punched through another wall.

"I suppose…" Matsuri said shielding her eyes from the dust. It didn't really take them long to get through the rest of the walls and they came out in a large open chamber with a tower build in the centre. Once the dust settled and they saw it the three girls seemed to get a new energy to run to the building because once they where inside it would be finally over. Monoki was just waiting for someone to attack or for a trap to spring on them, but their luck held out and they got in the tower with no more trouble.

"Well done, you're the third team to arrive here, do you have the three scrolls?" a chuunin proctor appeared behind them and asked. Sakura produced the mission scroll, Matsuri handed over the blue map and Monoki the red one. The proctor checked his stop watch and took the three scrolls to check they where the real deal.

"Okay then, four days two hours and 13 minutes, you've past the second exam. Go through that door and take the lift to the next floor, you'll find a few beds food and a shower. The exam doesn't officially end for another 22 hours so you may as well rest and clean yourselves up." The girls could help but feel a little insulted at his shower comment but then again they where underground for longer than they thought, Sakura was convinced it was still the third day but seems the darkness screwed up their sense of time. With lightened sprits they headed to the lift and went up to the next floor.

"I'm first in the shower!" Sakura called it before the others could.

"I'm next!" called Monoki quickly a millisecond before Matsuri.

"Kuso!" the lift opened into a corridor lined with doors, two of which had 'occupied' tags hanging from the doors from the other two teams who had gotten to the tower before them. They choose a room and piled it.

The fight over the shower it seemed wasn't needed as there where three in the room and the girls thankfully got cleaned up.

* * *

Nice and clean and in clean clothes they sat on the soft sofa with warm cups of tea.

"This is more like it…" Sakura stretched and wrapped herself in a blanket pulled from one of the beds.

"Yup!" Matsuri was in a similar position. Monoki was asleep on one of the beds, she still hadn't fully recovered from summoning the dragon. Cat was curled up next to Matsuri, she too was squeaky clean and brushed despite the hissing and spitting. Matsuri and Sakura got bored and decided that they may as well take advantage of the time they where given to get some sleep. They slept for a good while before a proctor came to awake them and take them to the next floor up. Waiting up here was the Kazekage and all the proctors (including the undercover leaf) as well as the genin team's jonins.

They waited for the fourth team to arrive, when they did it looked like they had just came in the door from the maze still dirty and tired looking. Over all there was a sand team, a rock team, a waterfall team and the apprentice team.

"Well it would seem the second exam is over ahead of time, there is another ten hours left but since all four scrolls are here there can be no more passing teams." The second examiner said stopping his stop watch, turning to some proctors he said, "Go and call off the exam, send people into fetch the others who failed to pass.

"Hai!" a number of the sand proctors left the room.

"Well done to all of you for passing the second exam" Gaara's quiet voice said from the head of the room, as he surveyed the young genin in front of him. "The third exam… will take place in one month from now. The exam will be seen by everybody, and because of this I'd like you all to show off you're powers with no reserves, because each of you will be representing the strength of her countries. As for the month break…You can use that time to both recover from your trial here and to prepare for the next exam…" he paused for a second waiting for any questions, none came so he continued.

"In the coming month you can gather information of your opponents and prepare a battle plan, up until now you have been fighting like you where in a real battle situation, by not knowing the terrain or the skills your enemy would have." Gaara nodded to the second examiner and he lifted a box and walked around the genin.

"The third exam will be a tournament, in the box are numbers, take one, these will determine who you get matched up against." While the box was passed around a rock ninja raised his hand.

"Yes?" Gaara said shifting his impassive gaze to the young girl.

"If this is a tournament, does that mean that only one of us will become a chuunin?" Gaara gave a shadow of a smile at the question.

"No, there will be judges, including myself and the Hokage and lords from various countries that will be watching the exam. These judges will be evaluating your abilities and those who display the right qualities of a chuunin will become chuunins, so you can all become chuunins even if you lose your first match but then again its possible that none of you will become chuunins. So until a month's time, rest yourselves and prepare for the final exam, you are all dismissed."

* * *

A little while later the apprentice team where in a back room with the two kage's, Takara, Temari and Kankurou. Matsuri had Cat dangling from her arms and was giving Gaara the puppy dog eyes treatment and asking to keep the kitten, little Cat was also giving wide mournful eyes. Monoki and Sakura sniggered.

"Please Shishou, she would make a good nin animal" Gaara looked at her for a moment, then cracked a rare smile and shook his head.

"Okay, but don't make me regret it…"

"YES! Thank you Gaara- Shishou"

"What will we name you then eh?" Matsuri asked Cat.

"I don't see what's wrong with Cat…" Kankurou said.

"They have to name it! How about Desert, (suggested by Kathie.S) since it's a desert lion." Temari scolded her brother and gave her own suggestion.

"Taiyouko?" offered Sakura (suggested by sukiko the librarian, means sun child)

"Kinsha…" Gaara said with finality (suggested by Dragonman 180 and seconded by others, means Golden sand, plus I love it).

"Kinsha it is!" Matsuri exclaimed and hugged the newly named cat who was purring loudly. Monoki lent over and whispered to Sakura,

"Who knew that Gaara of the Desert was susceptible to the puppy eyes attack" Sakura snorted as she tried to stop laughing out loud.

"Anyway aside from that, I've got to go back to Konohua, I can't stay here for the entire month, so Takara I'll be leaving Sakura in your care so she can properly gather information on her opponents. I trust you won't neglect her for Monoki." Tsunade said.

"Nope, don't worry about it" Takara smiled, "I'll see you when you get back."

"Takara I want I private word with you before I go, a message from your brother. You two go on and get some rest." Takara had an expression which was a cross between anger and worry on her face as Tsunade pulled her to one side, and motioned for the two leaf genin to leave. Sakura and Monoki headed down the hall, half way down the wall was a desk against one wall leaving only enough room for one person to walk past it at a time. The two girls walked towards the desk Monoki would have to step around it. Just before they reached it Sakura turned to Monoki and said,

"You did pretty well in the exams……Hinata" and grinned, Monoki stared at her with a dropped jaw, she was so shocked she walked into the desk and fell. While Monoki held her leg and cursed Sakura walked on laughing.

_End of chapter 27_

_

* * *

_

_WHAA SHAA I'm back from holidays and doing beta for LMD again WOOT!_

_Yup my psycho friend and fan Skip, whom Takara is afraid of, is back _

_**AM NOT!!**_

_Then why are you in another room_

_**Erm… no reason…**_

_Yeah… Skip would you do the honors_

_READ AND REVIEW PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!!_


	28. Chapter 28: The Third Exam

_Well here it is! Th third and final exam! WOOT, yet again I got a little carried away writing this so its another long one._

_**Not that any of you will be complaining, in this we have fights, victories, losses, the results and er …**_

_We find out who Takara's uncle is lol, well enjoy people!_

* * *

**The Third Exam**

Tsunade and all other unneeded leaf headed for home the next day. While the second exam was in progress Takara had rented out a small apartment for the three of them to stay in for the month.

The first morning there Takara and Sakura where in the kitchen, eating a quick breakfast when Monoki came out of the bedroom minus mask and glasses. Takara nearly choked on her tea and darted across the room in an attempt to stand between the two girls but tripped halfway around. Monoki sweat dropped at her sensei on the floor.

"Nee-chan… she knows already…"

"Coulda told me that before I made a fool of myself…" Takara mumbled from the floor. Pushing herself up she rounded on Sakura, "And how did you find out?" she glared at the pink haired girl, Monoki had also wanted to know this.

"Well I sneaked a look at your page in the special curks file…" she answered a little shyly, Takara continued to glare.

"Isn't that for the Hokages eyes only?"

"Well I am Tsunade's apprentice and once when I was cleaning the office it sort of… fell open…"

"And to the right page too I'll wager…" Takara said skeptically, Sakura noted that she was being very defensive of Hinata/Monoki. "and are you the only one?"

"Yes…" Sakura almost felt herself shrinking under the frightening glare of Takara's serpent eyes which swirled menacingly. Once Sakura stammered that out Takara mood changed completely back to the easy going jonin of five minutes ago, leaving Sakura completely confused. Red serpent eyes returned to peaceful grey as Takara counted off her fingers,

"Okay then, apart from me, there's you, Tsunade and Kurenai who know who you really are." Takara said to Monoki holding up three fingers, "Well possibly Gaara too but it's hard to know with him…" she shrugged and slid the box of cereal along the table to Monoki as she took her seat.

"Right, I wasn't expecting Tsunade to leave you with me so I really don't know what I'm going to do with you…" Takara said to Sakura returning to her own seat at the table.

"We could bring her along to our training sessions…" Monoki suggested while tucking into her breakfast.

"You sure? Think she could handle it?" Takara smirked wickedly and Monoki shrugged.

"She could try…"

"I am right here" Sakura cut over her she didn't like getting talked over like that.

"Well okay then, you can tag along on our training today but remember I expect you to keep up, if you have been training with Tsunade then I'll at least expect that from you."

"I'm sure it would be easy enough to keep up with you two after what Tsunade puts me through." Sakura said confidently, she soon regretted those words. Although Takara was pretty easy going and often fun to be around once it came to training she was harsh and commanding. Sakura was beginning to miss the predictable sessions she often had with Tsunade, because Takara's varied from day to day. One day would be focused entirely on Tai jutsu, another on chakra exercises, another on 'Dragon Stances' although when ever they started on this Sakura would be sent away, Monoki would always return from this training completely drained, curious on this Sakura once crept back to try and over hear the training only for her ears to be filled with a loud buzzing so she couldn't hear what was being said and when she tried to peek she was caught pretty quickly by Takara. It went on like this for quite a while, Monoki seemed used to the training on a day in day out basis but it was killing Sakura, she was used to getting a few days break between harsh sessions and half way through the month she called it quits on trying to keep up with them and trained on her own schedule, although still under Takara's supervision but still joined in on the chakra control exercises, as they where very effective in helping her control her chakra to pinpoint precision. The second day after the end of the second exam the listings of the finals where posted in a large board outside the stadium and the Kazekage tower.

Round1

seed 1) 1 vs 2, 3 vs 4

Seed 2) 5 vs 6, 7 vs 8,

Seed 3) 9 vs 10, 11 vs 12

(A/N I am too busy/lazy to get names for the rock, water and sand teams and they're really not that important so if you like my story to this point you will excuse the absence of names, okay plus i had a great listing thing here but it got messed up when i tried to post it so DON'T say a WORD!)

1Water

2Sand

3Haruno Sakura

4Rock

5Matsuri

6Water

7Sand

8Rock

9Royki Monoki

10Water

11Sand

12Rock

At one stage Takara surprised them by announcing they would be going to a popular restaurant in the middle of Suna, while they ate Takara watched the door and nudged the girls when the team from the Rock arrived. The real reason they where being treated was to spy on the other teams, they did this several times, pretending to go to the restaurant for a meal, which was frequented by all the competing teams, and then follow one of them to their training area and noting their tactics and preferred attacks. They weren't however the only ones to deploy this tactic and more than once found themselves being spied upon during their training, most times Takara, thanks to ANBU training and serpents gaze, was able to spot the intruder and call a halt to the training, but not all attempts where detected. But eventually and quicker than either of them would have liked, the day finally came for the final exam. Neither Sakura of Monoki slept that night, both ended up sitting wide awake at some ungodly hour in their beds. Monoki finally got up and headed to the kitchen and got something to eat, Sakura on hearing someone awake heading out too. The two sat in silence barely even able to exchange a few words. Monoki lifted her twin swords and absently sharpened the blades to pass the time, Sakura wasted time by checking and re-checking her equipment pouch.

"Why don't you two tone down the excitement a bit?" Takara said emerging from her bedroom, still dressed for sleep and her bed tossed hair hung around her face. Takara's dark hair was a lot longer than Sakura would had guessed once it was out of its deceptively small tuft, which was something Takara rarely did.

"Nee-chan? You're awake?"

"Hmm and I wonder why Kitsune…" Takara arched her eyebrow at Monoki, whom she nicknamed Kit or Kitsune (fox), Monoki looked at the whet stone in her hand,

"Oh, sorry…" the dull repetitive rasp of stone on steel was enough to rouse Takara and keep her awake.

"You two aren't going to sleep are you?" she asked to both girls, neither answered. "I'll put on the kettle…" Takara sighed and headed into the kitchen. At this stage it was around four in the morning and all three where now wide awake, Takara however was determined to lighten the mood and she succeeded by recanting stories from her old school days and her travels. She had just finished the story of how a leader of a clan of ninjas in Claw country agreed to teach their techniques to the scholar Takara was guarding if he could convince Takara herself to go out to dinner with the leaders son, and although she refused point blank he kept at it until she cracked, but only because of the puppy eyes of the scholars daughter who was traveling with them, and that one date resulted in a stalker and several marriage proposals from the clan leaders son. Takara swore that the scholar stayed in that village as long as possible just so he could laugh at her trying to avoid the leaders son and eventually be dragged out on more dates she would have rather killed herself than attend, but a mission was a mission and Takara, unfortunately had to do want the old man said, it didn't stop her hurting him later on though.

"Near the end I finally lied and told him I was already married and that I didn't tell him because I didn't want to hurt him… it didn't really work though he tried to convince me to divorce my 'husband' for him… Kami that guy was a freak. After that I dragged the scholar outta that town." Takara finished, both Monoki and Sakura where laughing due to mental images in their heads of Takara running from a fan boy.

"I can nearly picture that!" Monoki laughed nearly falling from her chair.

"Yeah well glad to cheer you two up but come on it's time to get ready the exam starts at nine, its nearly half seven now, move!" she clapped her hands and chased the two girls into their rooms to get ready. Once ready they headed towards the stadium on the west side of the city. The stadium was a little similar to the one in Konoha, expect the arena was sunken into the ground and the grandstands where ground level over looking the sunken area. In the arena was six trees in the southern corner, a number of boulders sticking up from the ground at random places and a large pond on the western side. The rest was rough dirt.

"Alright you two, go report in, I need to go greet Tsunade, I'll see you before you matches." Takara bade farewell to the girls at the competitors' entrance and headed back the way they had come towards the gates. The streets where ready for the festival atmosphere that came with the final round, there was even people in the streets already enjoying the event. The two leaf met Matsuri at the steps leading down to the green room. The green room was sunken into the ground, it was basically a room with a listing posted on the wall, a few shabby chairs and had an open viewing area overlooking the arena with another set of steps leading down into the arena.

"Where's Kinsha?" Monoki asked Matsuri.

"With Gaara- Shishou, she's a little young to be able to fight with me now" she answered.

"Well I guess at this point we become opponents…" Sakura said to her two former team mates.

"Yeah, well good luck to you two and I'll see one of you in the finals" Monoki said to the other two. The others nodded and they each went to their own little space in the room and retreated into their own little worlds, contemplating the up coming matches.

* * *

Takara greeted the leaf at the valley leading into Suna.

"I hope you looked after Sakura while I was away." Tsunade said to Takara as she fell into step beside the Hokage.

"Of course, she's at the stadium already with Monoki." Takara knew better than to be sarcastic with Tsunade.

"How where they this morning?"

"a little nervous, but you can't blame them." Takara shrugged.

"Yes well there may be a problem." Tsunade said and gave her head a slight backward nod, Takara chanced a quick backward glance and saw who Tsunade was referring to.

"What's he doing here!?" Takara hissed angrily returning her gaze to the Hokage.

"He enjoys the exams and will often travel to see the finals." Takara let out an annoyed snort. "Takara!" Tsunade said warningly, Takara hid the scowl on her face.

"The sand have requested a little help with the security of the stadium, I'd like you to join in the Suna ANBU presence during the exam." Tsunade continued, to distract Takara's glare.

"Are we expecting any trouble?"

"No, its just a precaution, the kazekage agrees that it would be better to be safe than sorry, they still aren't really on good terms with the Waterfall."

"I understand, I'll go ahead and get my post then…" Takara excused herself from the leaf group and darted ahead over the rooftops.

* * *

The matches where starting soon, the first pair where glaring at each other across the room. Takara came down into the green room, she caught Monoki's eye and jerked her head over to an empty corner, Monoki got up and followed her to the corner.

"What's wrong?" she asked seeing Takara's poorly hidden scowl, Takara was usually able to hide her emotions pretty well so if this was showing it was something major.

"What ever you do you must not use the gentle fist style during this exam, and here wear these." Takara handed her a set of tinted wrap around sports goggles.

"Why?" Monoki took the goggles and was a little confused.

"Those will hide the veins…." Takara said and trailed off.

"I gathered that but what's wrong?" Monoki asked as she closed her eyes and switched glasses for goggles.

"Your father is here" Monoki froze. She didn't know how to react at first, should she be scared, worried or something else. A range of emotions ran through her until one stuck, anger. Takara watched Monoki's forehead for the telltale creases to try and gauge her mood, for a few seconds it was smooth then her eyebrows knitted together and deep creases formed. She was pissed.

Takara grabbed both her shoulders and bent down to her level and whispered.

"Monoki, listen to me, I know you're angry right now but you have to understand now is not the time to reveal yourself, you must protect your real name for just a little longer. If you respect me as your teacher in any way you will trust me on this for now." Takara looked for any trace of an answer none came, Monoki was just staring at the ground her forehead still ceased in anger, her fisted were clenched so tightly they where shaking.

"Hinata, please, don't be foolish" Takara whispered. Monoki was silent for a while then nodded sharply, if Takara had used her real name she was serious, and Hinata did trust her, no one else had cared for her as much, so she decided she would do this and keep herself hidden for Takara.

"Good, trust me if you can do this and pass the exam you'll just be another step closer to what you want, this is just another hurdle… looks like the exam is starting, good luck and remember be careful." Takara smiled softly before giving Monoki's shoulder an affectionate squeeze and leaving the green room. Although she had just promised Takara she would be careful she still couldn't help but feel the anger towards her father smoldering in her chest, right now she just wanted to take her rage out on something so she wished for her match to come quickly.

The first match was over quickly, with the Sand ninja getting a serve beating from the waterfall ninja. The waterfall ninja won by knock out. Next it was Sakura's turn, she was pitted against a Rock ninja. The rock ninja, like the rest of his team, was a huge muscle bound monster and this one relied more on his brute strength than any form of organized fighting style. It was this that was his downfall, he underestimated Sakura just because she was smaller than him. But as the leaf knew her small body hid abnormal strength as well as the speed and flexibility that a small body allows. The Rock was big lumbering and slow meaning that Sakura soon won the fight. Next was Matsuri and a Waterfall ninja, Matsuri had a very close call when her support technique was nullified when her sand was soaked as it protected her from an attack, the waterlogged sand was no longer able to move as quickly as it once did, but with a well placed throw of her jouhyou she captured the Waterfall, who was declared unable to continue by the proctor and the fight was over. Next came a rather dragged out fight between a Sand and Rock, Monoki found her gaze scanning the grandstand above the match trying to locate her father. Finally she found him, just a little to the left sitting with a few other Hyuugas, he was watching the match with mild interest, Hinabi, who was next to him, was picking her nose and as watching the match. Hinata looked at her little sister and some of the hatred she felt for her father spilt over on to her younger sister. SHE was always the favorite. SHE was always getting father's approval. SHE was always getting the attention during the training sessions. Monoki shook her head, Hinabi wasn't at fault, she was just another victim of her father's cold tutelage, and she began to wonder, did her little sister miss her, did she even notice the difference? Her train of thought was broken when the crowd cheered. Monoki redirected her gaze to the stadium, the Rock was on the ground, defeated, the Sand had won.

Finally it was her turn, Monoki tightened the straps on her vambrace and walked down the steps to the arena, as she passed the waterfall ninja she heard the one Matsuri had defeated whisper,

"That's the one that uses earth techniques."

The two of them stood ten feet apart from each other with the proctor in the middle. Looking form Waterfall to Leaf he held out his arm and let it drop then jumped out of the way, it was a good thing he did too because the Waterfall launched a furry of shurikan at Monoki. Monoki drew her right hand blade and used it and her metal vambrace to deflect the attack, while she was focused on the projectiles the waterfall jumped behind a boulder close to the water and created two water clones. Then he jumped over the rock and attacked Monoki head on and forced her to turn around and while she was distracted the two clones jumped out to attack her back, which she saw thanks to her Byakugan. Monoki was exchanging blows with her single blade and the waters kunai, when she turned swiftly and drew her left hand blade and in a sharp upward strike sliced one of the clones in half and it fell to the ground as a puddle, the other clone had a kunai of it's own and after jumping her first strike attacked for himself. Monoki was now backed up against a rock and was holding off both clone and real water with a singe blade for each. Eventually with a well placed kick and slice she dispatched the clone and then focused both blades on the real water this was bad news for him and was quickly forced back. He avoided a sweeping kick from Monoki by back flipping towards the water. Monoki followed but did not go on to the water to where he was now standing.

"Got a trap set for me?" she shouted with a smirk, which he didn't see due to the mask, and sheathed her blades. "You're not the only one" Suddenly an earth clone burst up from under the water and gripped the water in a rip crushing bear hug. Monoki rushed forward onto the water to deliver the debilitating combo to end the fight but just as she reached him the Waterfall ninja melted in her earth clones arms, meaning her strikes landed on her own clone which crumbled.

"Kuso! A substitution!" she jumped straight up to get away from the water, she had walked right into his trap, while she was in midair a water clone burst from the water and grabbing her leg threw her back down to the real Waterfall standing below, just before she hit the water he held out his palm and a large sphere of water rushed up and encased Monoki, in the water prison jutsu.

"Heh, let's see you're earth jutsu's get you out of this" he jeered. Monoki smirked, she had been hoping for this, just before she was immobilized she put her hands into the dragon hand sign. The Water nin stopped his taunts when he noticed the top of his sphere was rippling, it wasn't meant to do that, as he watched his technique changed, a dragon's head with ice fangs formed from the water in his jutsu, the dragon hissed and lunged for him, knocking him flying back, his hand was pulled from what was left of his sphere and his jutsu was broken, Monoki was freed but the water dragon remained, its tail was wrapped once around Monoki's waist then down her right leg before it pulled away from her body and took the shape of a fearsome dragon. The dragon hovered waiting for instructions. Monoki kept her hands in the dragon symbol, this was only one part of the complex and powerful Elemental Dragon Stance Jutsu, she had trained harshly to perfect this jutsu but even now she could only reach stage two of five even Takara could only reach stage four, and she was about to show that to the Waterfall nin because attacking him with a water dragon may not be the wisest move. By now the Waterfall had recovered from his shock and renewed his attacks, the water dragon moved with him and protected Monoki from his repeated attacks but his onslaught wasn't letting up so she couldn't make the dragon fight back, it was time for the second stage. She concentrated and released the second bout of chakra needed. A finger of rock burst from the ground and wrapped itself like a snake up her left leg and encircled her stomach once below the belt of water from the dragon, once the ring was complete a second dragon appeared, this time of the rock element. The rock dragon reared up from the ground behind the waterfall and as he was occupied with the water dragon he didn't notice it until it was too late. The rock dragon shot forward and closed its stony jaws around the waterfall ninja, effectively pinning his arms to his side, the water dragon closed in menacingly flashing its icy teeth, but paused, waiting.

"The opponent is unable to continue, this match is over, winner, Royki Monoki." The proctor announced.

Monoki dropped her hand sign, the water dragon splashed down leaving the icy teeth behind to melt in the sun and the earth dragon crumbled to dust and pebbles, releasing the waterfall ninja. Monoki couldn't help glaring up at her father before calmly walking back up the steps to the green room.

"Whoa…" was all Sakura could say when Monoki reappeared in the green room. The last match of the first round was another bout between a sand and rock ninja, but again Monoki found her gaze turning to her father, she wore a smug smirk under her mask. '_I could see your small smile as I showed my power father, but I wonder how would you react if you knew the real name of the girl who impressed you so' _it was true he had smirked at the out come of her match but in truth he didn't care for her false name never mind her real one, and she knew it. _'just wait father, and you'll see'_ she promised him silently, she would make him eat those words he had said to her that day in the hospital so long ago. Just remembering that cold glare he had given her then provoked another flare of rage and she gripped the handrail tightly denting it slightly.

"That was harsh!" Sakura shouted beside her breaking train of thought. She looked back down into the arena the sand was down and broken, the Rock was being pushed back by the proctor while a couple of medics looked over the Sand.

"And he's next for you and all." Matsuri winced as her follow sand was lifted out on a stretcher. The proctor announced there would be an hour interval before the second round of matches. The crowd got up and started to wonder about to get food, drinks, go to the bathroom or collect on or place bets. In the V.I.P box the two kages exchanged small talk between the matches. But most conversations where one sided, Gaara was, as usual, quiet. He sat with Kinsha the desert lion cub sitting on his knee and was quite content to stay there as long as Gaara stroked her little head, the little kitten had filled out a bit and was looking a lot healthier then when the girls brought her out. The only thing that really peaked his interest, barring his own students match and the serious maiming of his Sand nin on the last match, was the fact that Monoki used two separate elements. This was a feat that normally only a jonin could do and even then after years of harsh training.

"That was interesting…" he said quietly after the two dragons disappeared.

"It was…" Tsunade said and raised her eyebrow at the Suna ANBU behind her with the cat mask. She could almost sense the smug smirk on Takara's face through that mask.

"I'm guessing you taught her that" She said while still looking forward.

"Naturally…" came the muffled reply.

"That was impressive, I'll admit…" Gaara added quietly as Kinsha butted his hand looking for him to resume the stroking of her furry head.

"So how did you work that one out?" Tsunade asked while poking at a tray of sweets next to her.

"When I started her training I tried to determine her element using those special cards, you know if it crumples you're a lighting type, wind, it cuts in half, fire it burns…"

"Yes yes water it gets wet and earth, it turns to dust, what's your point." Tsunade interrupted impatiently.

"A rare thing, the paper split…"

"So she' a wind type…" Gaara said quietly apparently the conversation interested him.

"Well, yes and no" Takara continued. "The paper split into four segments then each segment reacted differently, one burned, one crumpled, one turned to dust and the other got wet. It seems she has no set element, this in itself isn't uncommon there are ninja's who never or can't use elemental jutsu because they are too unbalanced but in that case the card wouldn't react at all, but it seems my student has an equal grasp on all elements."

"That is rare…" Gaara said and took a draft from his mug.

"So what has that got to do with those dragons?" Tsunade muttered.

"That is a special move that I taught her, rather difficult, lets just say she's lucky that all her previous training before she came to me fortified her chakra reserve."

"The gentle fist fighting style would do that" Gaara surprised Tsunade when he said this but Takara had suspected. "Don't worry no one else knows the girls secret." He said and for the first time during their whole conversation he turned to face Tsunade with a smirk.

"Guess it's pointless to ask you how you knew then…" Gaara's smirk only widened, even so it was still barely there.

* * *

The interval soon ended and Sakura's next match was up against the waterfall ninja which unfortunately Monoki missed because the line at the bathroom was far too long. She got back just in time to see the waterfall limp from the arena and the proctor announce Sakura as the winner. Next up was Matsuri and another sand, and it seemed the sand nin knew Matsuri's tactics and quickly countered her attacks, Matsuri was quickly out maneuvered and was knocked down, but not before she broke the other guys leg with her sand. Matsuri had lost, and Gaara scowled slightly at this more of the injuries she'd received than the loss. Next was Monoki and the Rock. This guy was big, very big but from what she saw of the last match he was fast. Monoki decided she had better keep her distance as this guys brute strength unbelievable. The proctor dropped his arm and the Rock charged, so did Monoki, using her small size she jumped up and over the brute and putting some distance between them she jumped up on to one of the trees and launched several kunai at him which he dodged. Monoki's fighting style was mostly close range but she couldn't risk that in this fight, so it was time for the long range attacks. The rock rushed the tree she was perched in and slammed his fist into the trunk, the tree split and the tree fell in a cloud of dust. This was stupid on the Rocks part, he had provided Monoki with what she was looking for, a smoke screen to get to a decent hiding spot to prepare for her attack. She had got to the furthest tree from the rock and hid herself effectively in the shadows and setting her hands in the dragon hand sign she charged her chakra. The rock released his mistake and jumped away to perch on top of a boulder in the centre of the arena and scanned the whole place looking for her. Meanwhile in the tree energy formed around Monoki's waist and then wrapping around her left arm and leaving it at her bent elbow, the wind dragon took its shape, the leaves started to rustle as the dragon reared then it launched out of the tree spiraling towards the exposed Rock.

"EHK" he brought up his arms to shield his face as the wind rushed past him, the sharp gales sliced his skin. the dragon past by and turned to sweep past him again but before it reached him he carried out a series of rapid hand signs.

"Stone Skin Jutsu." A thick layer of rock formed around his body so when the dragon past by again it did nothing more than chip the stone and even that was hardly evident.

"Aw shit…" not only was her attack no longer effective she had given away her position and he was charging again, redirecting the dragon she got it to hit him head on, her hope was that it would push him back but the added weight of the stone meant it didn't work he was only slowed down a little and kept pushing on towards the tree.

"Crap!" in a change of tactic she turned the dragon way from him and got it to rush up under herself, the wind launched her from the branch and allowed her to escape his onslaught. Perching on the same rock he was on a few moments ago a second band of red energy formed above the light blue band of the wind dragon, this band encircled her right arm and a dragon of fire formed along side the wind dragon. The two dragons darted forward to either side of the Rock both dragons surrounded him in an accelerating circle. The dragons got faster and faster until they almost merged to form a powerful flaming tornado. Monoki smirked as her tornado was beating down of the Rock position. The dragons spiraled out of the top of the inferno and returned to Monoki to hover over the shoulder from with they spawned from. The flames died away to reveal nothing but a scorched patch of earth.

"Where'd he go!?" her question was soon answered, the Rock crashed out of the ground behind her, his hair and clothes where scorched as was the rock skin coating him, in several places it looked slightly melted. He leapt for her and she spun in time to see him, both of her dragons dived for him but he was quicker he got past them and swung is rock coated fist at Monoki, it landed on her shoulder. She heard the pop and crack as the joint dislocated and the bone cracked, the lurch of the impact tore her hands apart and the dragons disappeared. The force propelled her back and she bounced a few times before sliding to a halt. Grabbing her right shoulder she rolled out of the way of another attack and once again the Rocks brash attack kicked up a dust cloud giving her the perfect smokescreen to hide. She crouched behind a boulder and tried to push her shoulder joint back into place but the bone was broken as well so there was no chance, this meant she could hardly move her arm and the pain was almost crippling. Biting her lip to keep from crying out she lend back against the rock trying to think what to do. She looked up into the crowd and one sneering face caught her attention. It was then her fathers voice filled her head.

_Failure, disgrace, not worth of the Hyuuga name _Her eyes flew open and she was filled with rage.

"I'll show that I'm no failure!" she hissed to herself and hopped on top of the rock her back to her father in the crowd and stared down the Rock, he was overly confident since he had hurt her so didn't attack right any, he took his time to jeer at her. Monoki closed her eyes and slipped the goggles down a little bit then gripped her right hand with her left and forced it into a hand sign, this time she was unable to suppress the pained whimper. The Rock rushed her again but just as he jumped at her she opened her eyes and the genjutsu took effect. The Waking Nightmare Jutsu, it brought the victims greatest fear into an illusion with out inducing a sleep like state. The Rock spun around as if he was surrounded and started waving his arms around his head trying to bat off unseen attackers, next he grabbed his head and ducked down screaming. Monoki had forced her goggles back into place as soon as possible and shuffled over to the proctor at this stage gripping her arm.

"I think this is over…" she said and the proctor agreed, and she dropped the genjutsu. The second round was over and another interval was called, while Monoki was looked at by a medic. The medic was able to maneuver her shoulder joint back into place but the bone was cracked in numerous places, so it was just set into a sling for now. The next match was meant to be between Sakura and a Sand nin but this was the same one who had his leg broken by Matsuri in the previous round it was a bad break nothing that could be healed easily so he was forced to withdraw, so it was Sakura and Monoki. Monoki found herself weighing her options as she stood opposite Sakura in the arena. The elemental dragon stance was out, she couldn't maintain the hand sign and didn't have enough chakra anymore, she couldn't use gentle fist her father would recognize it right away, she did have the basic dragon stance, the tai jutsu style. She got into the stance with her legs half bent and spread apart and her left hand cocked up with her hand in a pinching action. Monoki had hoped that Sakura would be as tired as her but was quickly disappointed. The pink haired ninja started fast and Monoki and to dodge quickly she managed a few quick strikes as she got under Sakura's attacks but it didn't last, with only one working arm she kept over balancing. Sakura dropped down and swept Monoki's leg out from under her. Monoki was on her backside cradling her jarred arm when Sakura moved in again.

"Wait! Wait!" Monoki shouted and held up her left hand, surprisingly Sakura did pause.

"What?" she kept her distance and her guard up, just in case.

"I forfeit, I'm in no shape to keep this up…" Monoki said from the ground.

"Wha!?"

"Come on, I'm tired and I think you might have dislocated my shoulder again."

"Then why did you even come out?"

"I didn't know the Sand had withdrawn, if you'da fought him you'd be tired or if you lost to him I could beat him cause he was a long range type, but I can't win this fight" the proctor called an end to the fight with Sakura as the winner. Sakura pulled Monoki off the ground and helped her to the medical unit just off the arena to the shouts of the above crowd. Not long after Takara came into the room beaming at Monoki she was about to give her a clap on the shoulder but reconsidered when she saw the bandages.

"Well done kid" She beamed.

"Yeah thanks" Monoki muttered the wound had made her a little short tempered and moody. Takara insisted on giving a commentary of Monoki's fights and pointing out all her good points when Tsunade appeared to congratulate both Sakura and Monoki, and also to look at Monoki's shattered bone.

They where told that the judges would decide tonight and they would find out the results tomorrow.

"right then…" Monoki went to slide off the bed but Tsunade stopped her.

"You are staying here tonight, that arm needs to be rested."

"But…"

"No buts! Takara will bring you something to eat but like it or not you're hurt and exhausted, so stay there."

Monoki pouted as Sakura agreed with Tsunade. So reluctantly Monoki stayed the hospital that night, but didn't really sleep due to the results coming tomorrow, her arm was killing her, and the sand with the broken leg was snoring.

* * *

Next day Monoki, Sakura and Matsuri met outside the Kazekage's office, they where handing out the results to team groups the sand ninja walked out just before they went it, only one had become a chuunin.

Sakura gulped as they where called in next, The three girls stood nervously in the middle of the office, Monoki had begun to fiddle with the edge of the sling on her arm. In the room was Takara, Tsunade, Gaara, and two older looking nobles from Kami knows where.

"Well, each of you fought well in the finals, some got further than others but you still preformed admirably." One of the older nobles said.

"and?" Matsuri added.

"Well as I said each of you…" the noble started again

"You all past" Gaara cut across the old woman, and she glared at him while the three girls squealed.

"You know I dislike pointless talk" was all Gaara offered for an explanation.

"Agreed," said Tsunade and even Takara nodded, "well then girls, you are all now Chuunin of you respective villages." Tsunade nodded to Takara, and she walked over to the girls handing each the flak jacket of their own village. Sakura and Matsuri rushed to put them on, Monoki just held hers because of the sling.

"Well can't say I'm surprised," said the other noble.

"Why's that?" Monoki asked.

"Well two of you," he looked at Sakura and Matsuri, "where trained by Kages while the other," he swept his gaze on to Monoki, "was trained by a sannin."

"What!?" Monoki looked around to Takara who shrugged,

"Technically, I never really got the official promotion." She said calmly as if it was nothing.

"huh, well we'll sort that once we get back to Konoha" Tsunade said and went back to praising her student.

Later on Monoki rounded on Takara about this.

"Nee-chan, why didn't you tell me that you're a sannin?"

"Because as I said I may be sannin level but I never got the promotion…" Takara responded as she helped Monoki get her stuff into her bag, they where heading for home the next day.

"But how come you are Sannin level while Kakashi, Gai and Asuma where in you age group but are still jonin?" Monoki pushed.

"Because the majority of my training when I was a genin was overseen by my uncle, he was a sannin…" Takara didn't seem to want to talk about this but Monoki didn't notice.

"Your uncle was a sannin?"

"Yeah one of the legendry three…" Takara threw what was in her hand into the bag and left the room under the guise of getting a jacket but Monoki still pursued the conversation.

"Your uncle was Jiraiya?" Monoki said sounding doubtful, Takara sighed Monoki wasn't going to drop this.

"No Kitsune, my uncle, or rather my fathers uncle, was Orochimaru"

* * *

_End chapter 28_

_Cool eh? That listing took me ages to perfect, i had a perfect diagram written out and all and then it got screwed up as i tried to post MEYH!!, including the match ups sob but the matches worked, they all past and we're all happy!_

_**Yeah yeah, next is the walk home but myself and Monoki get sidetracked and we run in to a familiar character**_

_HEY! No spoilers!!_

_**Sorry…**_

_No your not! Anyway read and review please and thank you!_


	29. Chapter 29: The Revelation

_I'm sorry, its late I know… I was so stuck on this chapter._

_**The curse of writers block, sigh**_

_Yeah it__'s not as long as the last ones but I still reckon it's a good one under the circumstances _

* * *

**The Revelation**

The leaf left Suna in the late afternoon, since after the festival atmosphere meant every one over 20, and some who weren't, headed off to celebrate the good out come of the exams. So of course no one was in any condition to leave in the morning. So they headed out, most nursing headaches, and made they're way home. Monoki's arm was still tender and in a sling so Takara tossed her large backpack onto one of the carts. They moved in a long train and Sakura and Monoki walked with the remaining genin, but soon moved because of the constant arguing of the team they met in the maze. Monoki pulled Sakura back from walking to the front of the train since that's where her father was. Monoki and Sakura chatted away on random topics, eventually hey ran out of things and started to look around to see who was there. All the leaf chuunins that where loaned to Suna where returning with them, including Shikamaru who sundered down the road gazing upwards, he seemed pretty happy to be back in the Leaf uniform. Along with the group was a few carts as a number of merchants from Konoha took advantage of the festival and had brought along a number of things to sell, and had bought a number of things as well. Perched on one of these carts was Hinabi. She had been walking but still being young and small soon tired out so she had hitched a lift on one of the carts, walking next to the cart was a Hyuuga woman with a head band covering her forehead, it covered the caged bird seal of the branch family, the woman was Hanbi's carer the same woman who used to look after Hinata when she was younger, she was also a chuunin, a body guard to protect the main houses new heir. The woman was always kind to Hinata and had always told her to ignore her fathers cruel words. Monoki couldn't help watching her little sister, but what caught her eye more was the head and arms of a panda toy poking out of the top of her bag next to her on the cart. Hinata smiled to herself when she saw her old toy, least Hinabi missed her. However the peaceful lull Monoki was in, which she suspected was caused by the pain killers, ended that night. Monoki, along with Sakura and Shikamaru retreated to the branches up into a tree, mostly to avoid helping setting up the camp but also to get a peaceful place to rest.

"You seem really proud of that" Shikamaru said to Sakura as he stretched out, Sakura looked up of wiping a minuscule speck of dirt from the shoulder of her new flak jacket.

"Just cause you weren't thrilled doesn't mean we can't be, right Monoki?"

"Yeah, think about it we get to boss the genin around now." Monoki was lounging on a higher branch with her good arm under her head.

"oh yeah it's great… just wait until your pulled in to help at the academy" Shikamaru snorted.

"That won't happen, I'm too busy with Tsunade…"

"And I'm barely around…" the girls countered.

"Troublesome" he muttered and shut his eyes. The girls chuckled then fell silent. Below them a group of men where discussing the finals and the bets they had placed on them.

"I made a nice little profit of the Hokage's apprentice in the final fight." One said.

"Yeah well lucky you I had mine on that dragon girl, if her arm was still in one piece she'da won"

"Who knows but you still lost a bit didn't you" the man grunted in agreement.

"Speaking of lost things, did you ever get word of your daughter Hiashi?" in the tree Monoki's eyes opened and she listened carefully.

"No…" came Hiashi's cold voice.

"You think she's still about somewhere?" he first voice asked.

"Unlikely, Hinata was no shinobi, she either would have died or came running home, and since she didn't come crying home…" he replied and got up to walk away, "but either way, she's no longer my concern"

"That's a bit harsh…" the man muttered, Sakura echoed the mans comment just before a flurry of movement caught her attention, Monoki was going after Hiashi, Shikamaru was already asleep so Sakura started after Monoki before she did something stupid, but Monoki had a good head start. She was just above Hiashi and about to jump him when someone else pulled her back into the trees. When Sakura got there she found Takara holding Monoki tightly in the trees. Monoki was struggling and cursing but Takara had a hand clamped over her mouth her other arm around Monoki's mid section holding her tightly against herself to avoid her getting away and possibly trying to beat Hiashi to a bloody pulp.

"Calm down" Takara whispered into her ear over her muted vulgarities. Sakura stayed clear of the kicking legs until Monoki finally did start to calm down. Takara loosened her grip but still held Monoki's uninjured shoulder tightly, Monoki was breathing heavily and was shaking with anger.

"Sakura…" Takara said quietly and nodded slightly at the girl indicating she should leave, but Sakura stood her ground she wasn't moving.

"Why'd you stop me!" Monoki spat, she was seething.

"One, you're in no condition to fight him with that arm and second, beating him to a bloody pulp by jumping him in woods at night won't do anything. If you really want to hurt him you must show him he was wrong to underestimate you and it must be public." Takara said releasing her grip on her student.

"I can't stay here with him nearby" Monoki shrugged off Takara's hand and returned to the tree where Shikamaru was sleeping.

"Keep an eye on her will you…" Takara said quietly to Sakura after Monoki was out of earshot, Sakura nodded and headed back to the tree leaving Takara to glare at the tent Hiashi had disappeared into, in truth she was on her way to confront Hiashi, but was rethinking it when she intercepted Monoki, Hiashi's presence was affecting them both.

* * *

The next day the trek continued on, Monoki was still seething as they walked on and Sakura was saying nothing.

"Did I miss something?" Shikamaru asked, Monoki was staring intently at the ground in front of her, Sakura just shook her head. Takara walked up from behind them and tapped Monoki on the shoulder indicating so should follow. She led her to the front to Tsunade.

"This is where we leave you, we have a lead to follow in River Country. So we'll see you back at Konoha in about two weeks." Monoki was about to ask what lead but Takara squeezed her shoulder meaning 'shut up, I'll explain later' so she shut her mouth and played along. Tsunade agreed and Takara lead Monoki back down to the cart and heaved off Monoki's large bag and sat it on the ground, they waited until the rest of the group had walked on and left them behind.

"I can't carry that, and where are we going?" Monoki asked.

"I know and you'll see." Takara smirked while she nipped her thumbs and summoned Si and So the branded summon panthers. Takara put the two heavy packs on Si then they got on So.

"Ready?" Takara was holding on to Hinata as her arm in the sling would mean she couldn't balance herself on one of the panthers.

"I love this part, lets go" Monoki replied, Takara let out a quick bark of a laugh and instructed the panthers to run into the woods. They traveled for a day after leaving the convoy until they came to a hill over looking a village in the mountains. The panthers returned to Takara's arms and Monoki shouldered her pack on only her left shoulder.

"Don't worry you can drop it soon." Takara said as they headed into the village.

"What is this place?" Monoki was a little confused the main street was filled with guest houses, restaurants, and spas.

"A spa village" Takara answered simply.

"What are we doing here?" Monoki asked.

"Well you past your exam with flying colors and you have been working hard so I reckon you deserve a treat, like a weeks holiday for example." Takara's face split into a massive grin as she saw Monoki's unmasked face light up.

"You Rock Nee-chan!" Monoki grinned widely. Takara lead the way to a large hotel and walked on in, Monoki followed.

"Whoa!" she mumbled as she looked around the marble floors and beautifully decorated lobby. "Can you afford this place?"

"What? You think I wasn't paid for those seven years body guard duty? All my pay was put into a bank account back at Konoha, it sat there and built up interest so don't worry about money. Besides we're still getting an allowance for all this travel, you've got a mission account too you know, I'll show it to you when we get back to the village, but for now, lets get a room" Takara arranged the room details while Monoki looked at the exotic fish in the giant fish tank.

"Kit, lets go!" Takara called, a porter took Monoki's bag and led the way to a room. The room was big, with two comfy beds a fully stocked mini bar, a huge bathroom but the best feature was outside the sliding glass double doors. In a fenced off private area was a personal hot spring pool, with a rockery fountain display at one end and there was a grass sunbathing area just to the right of the door. The porter sat down Monoki's bag on one of the beds, Takara tipped him and he left.

"We got this room for a week, whatdya think?" Takara asked flopping down on the bed.

"This is great." Monoki said with a huge grin.

"Thought it would be good, the warm water would be good for your shoulder, speaking of…" Within minutes both women where in the small garden in bath robes.

"Wonder how warm the water is?" Monoki mused to herself, her sore arm was tucked in the robe, she didn't even try to get it in the sleeve.

"Lets find out." Takara took off her robe and left it by the pool, revealing a deep crimson bikini, and lowered herself into the water.

"Aw… its perfect." She sighed and sank into the water up to her neck. Monoki soon followed in her purple tankini. As so as she settled in the water the dull throb in her arm started to ebb away, the heat was loosening up her stiff joint. After a while Monoki turned and said.

"Nee-chan, you ever get the feeling your being watched?"

"Now that you mention it…yeah" Takara twisted around and picked up a circular tray that was next to the pool, after she had removed the drinks that where on it, and in one swift movement threw it at an over hanging tree above the ten foot bamboo fence. With a resounding clang the dented tray fell back into the garden along with a dazed man. Monoki yelped and jumped out of the water and threw on the robe, Takara did the same but stalked over to the dazed man.

"YOU!" she recognized the man, it was the perverted freak from the mountain village just before the exam. Monoki appeared holding Takara's clothes, she had already put on her trousers and top in lightening speed, Takara practically jumped in to her trousers and pulled her top on over the robe before pulling that off from underneath.

"well what do we do with him?" Monoki said menacingly.

"I have an idea!" Takara grabbed the dazed guy and threw him over the fence, out of the garden and jumped after him Monoki followed, once on the other side Takara laid into him.

"Don't. You. Ever. Even. Attempt. Some. Thing. Like. That. Again!" she kicked him on each word.

Monoki hovered behind Takara, she was well aware of how 'violent' Takara could get when she was pissed.

"Hinata!?" Both women froze, Takara was even mid-kick. It was then Monoki released she had forgotten her glasses, she swung her head around to the source of the call. There tied to the tree with a gag half covering his mouth was Naruto. (A/N You where all expecting it!)

"Na-Na-Naruto-kun!?" Hinata stuttered and turned beetroot red. While Takara's attention was on the boy Jiraiya tried to crawl away.

"Hold it you're not off the hook!" Takara grabbed him by his long white hair to hold him in place. "You could at least untie the poor boy." Hinata stepped around behind the tree and fumbled with the knots on the ropes until they fell off.

"Why we-were you tied to the tr-tree Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked quietly,

"Because I was about to shout a warning over the fence." He scowled at Jiraiya on the ground, who was waving his hands trying to ward off another assault from a still very pissed off Takara.

"Hope you plan to make up for this" she raised her free fist threateningly.

"How about he treats us to dinner?" Naruto suggested.

"OI!" Jiraiya protested.

"Well it's either that or we let her at you again." Naruto pointed at Takara.

"I dare you to say no…" she threatened.

Half an hour later they were in a restaurant, Hinata and Takara had changed into dry clothes and sat with menus. Hinata was still red as a traffic light and refused to meet Naruto's eyes. Anyway while Jiraiya cowered under Takara's gaze Naruto rattled on about where he'd been. Hinata sat there just poking her food with her chopsticks. When the dessert came Naruto finally stopped chatting and asked Hinata where she had been and what she had been doing, at first she said nothing until Takara kicked her under the table and raised an eyebrow at her. Only after a second kick did Hinata talk. She started quietly but as she went on she stopped stuttering as much and got a little louder. Earning a smile from Takara while she intercepted Jiraiya as he tried to sneak away, again.

"The Chuunin exams!" Naruto exclaimed though a mouthful of dessert.

"Yes, Naruto-kun, we just came back from there."

"And how'd you do?" Naruto asked expectantly

"I past Naruto-kun, I'm a chuunin now…"

"That's great Hinata!" he even went so far as to hug her, the red returned.

_Don't faint, don't faint!_

Hinata chanted inwardly until he let her go and sat back down into his seat, he seemed genuinely happy for her and she was pleased with that.

"Right you pay up!" Takara broke into their conversation with her sharp comment at the white haired man beside her. "Oi!" she clipped his head when he was paying more attention to the waitresses than to anything else. The slap brought his attention back to the table and he huffed with Takara and was on the verge of refusing but a very stern glare from Takara killed that argument before it left his mouth. He unwillingly handed over the money. Hinata, Naruto and Takara wondered out of the building leaving Jiraiya to work the bar, much to the dislike of Takara, so with nothing else to do they went back to the hotel, and Naruto got an invite to the room as Jiraiya had left him alone, again.

Hinata and Naruto sat by the pool dangling their feet in the warm water while chatting away, Takara had stretched out on the grass with a book but soon laid it over her face to have a nap while the two teens chatted, Hinata explained why 'Monoki' was needed, needless to say he wasn't very happy about it, he ranted and raved about causing physical bodily harm to Hiashi next time he saw him.

"Hush, Naruto, you'll wake Nee-chan, and I want to fight my own fight to prove I can…" Hinata said gazing into the water. Naruto looked at her confused slightly, then smiled.

"You're right, Hinata-chan." He sat down again and let his feet dangle back into that water. "I believe you'll be able to do it" he grinned his trademark grin.

"Really Naruto-kun?" Hinata smiled shyly at his usual support.

"Well yeah, you have been training all this time, it would be a waste if you didn't show you're dad your better than he gave you credit for, everyone else knew you where stronger than you thought you were. You just didn't believe us when we told you…" he kicked the water creating a flurry of ripples.

Hinata gave a small chuckle of a laugh and Naruto looked up at her, only now did he notice the change in her, she was taller than he remembered, nearly the same height as him, her face was slimmer, longer, and all her visible skin was tinted with a deep brown tan, that and she didn't hide in her thick jackets anymore.

"What?" she shyed away and pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear

"Nothing." He quickly said and turned away. "You're just 'different' that's all."

"What do you mean by 'different'?" she asked.

"Dunno really, just different… I suppose." Hinata decided to take that as a compliment from Naruto. Trying to defuse the awkwardness Naruto grinned Hinata returned it with a shy smile. Behind the two teens the book over Takara's face gave a small twitch as she smiled to herself, she could almost picture the two edging closer together.

"NARUTO!"

"AGH!" Takara sat bolt upright, the book when flying and thumped to the grass. The two teens where blushing madly and were concentrating on things it the other direction from the other one, obviously interrupted. Jiraiya was perched on the fence.

"WHY'D YOU SHOUT YOU MORON!" Takara snapped up the book and threw it like a Frisbee striking Jiraiya on the nose.

"OW!" He overbalanced and fell into the garden. "Just cuz I woke you doesn't mean you have to get violent."

"That's not the reason and you know it!" Takara's eyes were blazing as she shook Jiraiya, Hinata and Naruto sweat dropped.

"Nee-chan…" Takara looked over she had momentarily forgotten about them.

"Oh… right" she let go of Jiraiya and he slipped to the ground. "What do you want?"

"I came to collect my student." Jiraiya stood up and tried to recover some dignity and straightened his jacket.

"Come on Naruto, it's getting late."

"You just saying that to get away from Takara…" Naruto muttered and fetched his shoes

"Jiraiya a quick word before you go…" Takara beckoned him over he followed after he made her promise not to hit him.

"Now listen you, we are on a holiday, alright so I don't wanna have to worry about you peeking over the fence got it." She threatened him and he pouted.

"You make it sound like you don't want to be admired."

"I don't like being spied on when I'm bathing and she has only just turned fifteen so keep away or I will hurt you…" The threat wasn't substantial but he knew she could deliver on it.

"Fine, but I'll admit she's rather well developed for a fifteen year old" he regretted those words as soon as they left his mouth.

"PREVERT!" Takara slammed her fist under his chin and he was propelled over the fence, the two teens over heard this conversation, Naruto looked like he also wanted to hurt Jiraiya, Hinata had turned bright red, turned away from the men and attempted to cover herself with her arms. Naruto muttered an apology and jumped over the fence after Jiraiya, the women could hear him curse at the old man.

Takara cursed to herself, Jiraiya had really pissed her off.

"Nee-chan?" Hinata chanced.

"Ah forget about it Kit, lets just get an early night and go get a massage or something in the morning." Takara headed back into the room and got ready for bed, Hinata stalled outside for a minute and let her feet sink back into the warm water and thought about what Jiraiya had interrupted and hoped that she hadn't imagined it, that moment when their eyes met.

* * *

The next day Hinata stayed in bed for a long lie in, the bed was far too comfortable to get up. Takara seemed to do the same, nether of them moved until mid morning. After getting breakfast via room service they headed to a spa down the street.

"So you still like him them?" Takara asked Hinata as they enjoyed a massage, she didn't answer right away.

"Aw come on I was listening last night you know." Takara grinned as Hinata reddened.

"Well, yeah, but how would I know if he likes me?" Hinata asked without looking at Takara.

"Simple, you ask" Takara said plainly. Hinata looked horrified.

"But what if he doesn't I'd be crushed."

"Listen Kit, you can't keep putting things like this off, if you do eventually you'll chicken out altogether and you'll never find out. You end up regretting that for the rest of you're life, you'll kept second guessing yourself and wondering what could have happened."

"You sound like you know how that feels…"

"I do, in more ways than one. I never took a chance on mine and I lost him."

"What happened to him?"

"He met someone else and got married, he has a kid now…"

"Well you were sent off for seven years I'm sure if you'd have stayed…"

"The kid was four when I left"

"oh…" Hinata pondered what Takara had told her, should she tell him, would he return her affections, if not it would crush her. Hinata decided against that for now, she was hoping Naruto would make the first move.

"aaahh that was great!" Takara said as she left the spa with Hinata, who had to agree both of them smelled like the lavender massage oil the girl was using.

"so what now?" Hinata asked.

"I dunno what I'm doing but it looks like someone's looking for you." Takara nodded down the street behind her, Hinata turned to see Naruto heading up the street. He waved.

"Oi! Hinata-chan!"

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata looked from him back to Takara, who had disappeared, leaving her alone with Naruto.

"Nee-chan…" Hinata whimpered softly just before Naruto caught up which her.

"Hey Hinata! I've ditched ero-sannin for the day, lets go to the arcade or something"

"ano…hai…" Hinata tagged along behind Naruto to a building filled with gaming machines. In a nearby ally Takara watched them walk away, she nipped her thumb and summoned Ryuu.

"Oh hey, long time no see, whats up?" the little dragon asked.

"I want you to keep an eye on Monoki"

"Takara, she's fifteen already I think she can look after herself." The little dragon pointed out as he cleaned out one of his ears with a tiny claw.

"She's with a boy"

"I'm on it"

They spent most of the day there wasting their money on the games. They wondered off in different directions at one stage both tempted by different games. Hinata spotted a cups game and decided to have a go, seven cups one bean the goal was to find the bean. The guy looked pretty dodgy so she watched him as he shuffled the cups, she didn't need Byakugan to know he had palmed the bean under the counter so she decided to catch him out. She chose one cup and knocked the others over leaving one standing.

"Oh that must mean the beans under this one then…" the guy sneered and lifted a plushie frog from the stacks behind him and almost threw it at her, he'd been caught out and he knew it. She wondered off to find Naruto, and soon found him, competing in a ramen eating contest. The prize was a giant fuzzy fox and a cash prize, it was of course no contest and Naruto won.

"Trust you to find the ramen in an arcade. Congrats Naruto-kun." Hinata smiled at him, he ginned back holding on to the large fox.

"What can I say it was too easy" he suppressed a burp.

"that fox is so kawaii!" she said falling into step beside him.

"Trade?" he offered over the fox for the frog.

"Okay" they switched prizes and Hinata snuggled the fox, Naruto nearly dropped the frog but caught it as against his knees as he did something slipped down his wrist from inside his sleeve. Hinata paused and looked at the bracelet on his arm with the little jade charm. Before she mentioned it something caught her eye, in a plushie bin was scaly dragon amongst all the fuzzy ones.

"Ryuu?" she said confused for a moment, "What are you doing?" the dragon reared up and tried to think of something.

"Eh well ahhh…."

"Did you crash again?"

"YEAH that's it I crashed!" the dragon scratched the back of his little head and speaking louder and faster than was needed.

"Does Takara want me?" she asked a little disappoint to be going.

"ano yeah! No rush though, no really!" the dragon pulled himself out of the hiding place from between the plushies, "well I'll be going now bye!" the nervous little dragon flew out the door, he had to warn Takara Hinata thought she was called.

"I gotta go then, I'll see you later Naruto-kun" Naruto waved as she followed the dragon out of the door.

"You let her see you! What am I meant to tell her when she gets here!?" Takara had been caught off guard by the little dragon shouting a warning to her.

"I dunno I was hoping you'd figure something out!" and jumped back out of her reach. Takara didn't have long to think because Hinata came around the corner a few seconds later and Ryuu disappeared right away.

"Damn you Ryuu…." Takara muttered to herself.

"Hey you wanted to see me?"

"Er yeah we're um… we're going shopping." It was the only thing that came to mind.

"eh… what brought this on?" Hinata asked.

"Well, we've time off, money and a street full of shops. Plus you're getting too tall for you're clothes now you need a few new sets."

"I suppose you're right Nee-chan" Hinata said surveying her clothes the t-shirt no longer dropped below her belt so it wasn't as baggy as it used to be. "Yeah okay, let me just leave this in the hotel." She held up the huge fox plushie.

"Where'd you get that?" Takara asked as she fell into step next to Hinata heading back to the hotel.

"Naruto-kun won it for me" she said of handedly.

"Oh realllllyyy?" Takara teased.

"stop it…" Hinata reddened and Takara dropped it after a few more taunts. The rest of the day they wondered around the shopping district browsing the shops and getting a few sets of clothes each. The whole time something bugged Hinata. Where had she seen that bracelet before? She didn't remember until she was laying in bed that night.

She had just shifted the fox off her bed so she could crawl under the covers.

"This thing Naruto won for me is big enough to use as a pillow." She chuckled to herself then it hit her. Naruto had won that bracelet at the carnival all those months back, he'd got it for her and when she left she'd given it to Sakura to pass on to Naruto. He was still wearing it. Hinata smiled to herself, he really did care.

* * *

The next day she was determined to bring up the subject of the bracelet with Naruto but every time she saw him he was with Jiraiya, she wouldn't be able to speak to Naruto with him around. She needed help with this one.

"Nee-chan please!" she begged Takara. Both of them were crouched behind a bush outside the spa village, on the other side of the bush was Naruto and Jiraiya. Jiraiya was walking Naruto through a technique. Takara looked over the bush at Jiraiya then back to Hinata who was doing the puppy eyes.

"AGH, fine! But weather you pull this off or not you are gonna owe me big time!" Takara poked Hinata on the forehead.

"Arigatou Nee-chan!" Hinata beamed.

"Yeah, yeah… I hate this sort of thing." Takara took her hair out of the tuft and let it fall down to the sides of her face. "You owe me!"

"I know" Hinata thanked her again as Takara got up and walked over to the two men. Jiraiya flinched as she came closer.

"Jiraiya-sama, why don't we go get a few drinks?" she asked in a seductive voice. Jiraiya quickly got over the initial shock of the approach very quickly, he flashed a i-told-you-she'd-never-resist-me look to Naruto whose jaw was on the ground. Takara and Jiraiya disappeared into the trees heading towards the village and Naruto was still in shock started off in the same direction.

"Naruto-kun?" Naruto jumped at the quiet voice.

"Oh it's just you Hinata, did you just see that?" he pointed over his shoulder in the direction the two adults had gone.

"er… yeah… I did… Naruto, there's something i…"

"I mean what would have made Takara-san change so completely?" he chatted on

"Naruto… I …." Hinata tried to get his attention, but he kept going, she was getting frustrated

"I thought she hated ero-sannin, but there she just asked him out! I mean…"

"Naruto! I love you, I've always loved you!" she shouted at him as soon as the words left her mouth she slapped her hands over it and her eyes welled up as Naruto just stared at her dumbstruck. When he did nothing Hinata spun on her heels and ran. Naruto stared at the shaking tree branches that Hinata had just ran though, he didn't know what had just happened or how to react. He fingered the bracelet, a practice that had become a nervous habit long ago. She'd said she loved him. Him, of all people. Still not sure of his reaction to this revelation Naruto started off after Hinata. He found her not far off she was gripping on to the bark of a tree and leaning her head against it, he could hear her muttering to herself and calling herself a baka. Naruto stepped closer and she sensed his presence, she spun around and seeing him she stepped back and put the tree between then as if it would protect her from the pain of rejection.

"Hinata?" Naruto walked closer she didn't retreat but she didn't meet his eye either she was fixated on his feet.

"Hinata?" he said again, she didn't answer, she looked like if she tried to speak she'd cry. "When I left Konoha with ero-sannin, I promised myself that I would still look for you where ever I went. I really wanted to find you but I never really knew why I wanted to so badly…" he said and scratched the back of his head. "but I think I do now though… after what you said a second ago… I think … I love you too…" hinata's eye's widened and she looked at his face he was slightly red and was looking straight back at her.

"You think…?" Hinata asked quietly and stepped out from behind the tree. Naruto walked closer to her until he was right in front of her.

"Nah… I know" he said with a little more confidence, and gave her a small smile which she returned. Hinata threw her arms around his shoulders and buried her face into his neck, Naruto was a bit startled but recovered in a moment and wrapped his arms around behind her as well. Hinata pulled her head away from him and looked up at him with a wider smile, Naruto lowered his head down and they shared their first kiss.

Takara was leaning against a tree not close enough to be detected but not too far so she couldn't hear. She had barely walked 100 feet with Jiraiya before he did some thing to provoke her after she' knocked him out she heard someone running in the trees. She'd just spotted Hinata alone and was about to go to her when Naruto showed up, so Takara leant back and let the boy speak. Now she was glad she did and turned to leave with a smile and left the two alone.

_End chapter 29_

* * *

_AWW finally they get their kiss YAY! I mean just about all of you had a suspiction it was Naruto they where going to meet right?_

_**Yeah well, read and review, please and thank you**_


	30. Chapter 30: Caring Uncle?

_**I know it's late again this week, LMD is really sorry, but she's been confined to bed most of the week with migraines so it's just me for now…**_

_**This is a little longer than LMD first thought but no one cares.**_

_**I'd also like to point out there has been over 20,500 hits on this story WOOT!**_

_**Also a fun fact if LMD doesn't update on Fridays she gets at least 7 PMs from fans asking why lol I think that's rather cool**_

_**Anyway on with the story!**_

* * *

**Caring Uncle?**

"Naruto's at the door" Takara called to Hinata in the bedroom and as if on cue there was a knock on the door. Takara was stretched out on the small sitting room sofa with a book.

"Nani! Coming!" Hinata jumped over the low sofa, nearly knocking Takara's book over, to get to the door. Hinata opened the door to Naruto who was grinning his usual grin.

"Just let me grab a jacket Naruto-kun." She left the door open and jogged back into the bedroom once again jumping over Takara on the sofa.

"Will you stop that" Takara called after her.

"Last time" Hinata called jumping over her again. Takara tried to swipe at her but missed.

"See you later Nee-chan!" Hinata stepped out into the hall with Naruto and shut the door behind them.

"Behave yourselves!" Takara shouted after them then got comfortable again to read her book.

"So where you wanna go Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked as they headed across the entrance hall of the hotel.

"Dunno, Naruto-kun, lets just walk around and see." Hinata suggested, she didn't care, she finally got what she wanted.

"Okay…" Naruto slid open the door and stepped outside then quickly retreated back inside, outside there was heavy rainfall, he was completely soaked. Hinata could only laugh at his drowned puppy look.

"I guess we're staying inside then…" she chuckled and led him back to the room.

"By the way its raining…" Takara called as they came back in.

"I noticed…" Naruto muttered while Hinata fetched him a towel. He took off his dripping jacket and hung it out to dry in the shower.

"So what are you to going to do now?" Takara asked without looking up from the book.

"There's always the movies on TV…" Hinata suggested and looked at the listings while Naruto rubbed his hair dry. "The next one's not for another hour though."

"What will we do till then?" Naruto asked pulling the towel off his head revealing frizzy hair.

Eventually Takara left the living room to Naruto darting around the two sofas sporting Hinata's ANBU apprentice mask humming the mission impossible theme, while Hinata giggled at him.

"You know what, just call me when the films on… I'll leave you too alone." She said with a smirk, Hinata shot her a glare as she closed the door between the bedroom and living room. Takara looked out at the rain though the glass doors, even though it was only 3 in the afternoon it was as dark as night with those rain clouds, something felt wrong.

"Oi, on second thought, I'm gonna get some sleep" she called back into the living room.

"You sure Nee-chan?" Hinata called back.

"Yeah, you two enjoy the film." Takara called back but instead of getting changed for bed she got into her ANBU sneaking suit and donning her mask set off into the rain.

On the outskirts of the village she stopped on a branch of a tree, the presence she had sensed was gone.

"You felt it too then?" she said.

"yeah…" answered Jiraiya he was leaning against tree she was crouched on. "Do you think it was _him_?" he asked.

"The power was only there for a short while but I'm sure, it seems my uncle is on the move again."

"He's moving west, into Fire country."

"You don't think he's going to attack Konoha, do you?" Takara jumped down beside Jiraiya.

"No, his forces where depleted as much as Konoha's were, if not more, there is no way he could attack now but even so we have to warn them."

"I agree…" Takara summoned Ryuu.

"AGH! It's raining!" the small dragon complained, "Eh, what's with the mask, something happen?"

"I need you to deliver an urgent message to Tsuande-sama." Ryuu caught on to the serious tone.

"Hai, what is it?"

"Orochimaru is moving north-west through Fire country, judging by his direction of travel at time of encounter he's moving towards Rice." Jiraiya said to the dragon. Ryuu blinked at him.

"Who are you?"

"That doesn't matter right now Ryuu, take that message as quickly as possible." Takara told him.

"Right, Ja ne!" with that he shot off Takara's shoulder and disappeared into the rain.

"You called him your uncle… you've grown since I last saw you Tak."

"Only he called me that, a name I don't like" Takara pushed up her mask and glared in the direction Ryuu had flown off in. "It's strange that you only remember me now, Jiraiya-san."

"Well you can excuse me that, last time I saw you, you had just become a chuunin." He finished there.

"I don't blame you for that, you were the first one there." Takara squinted into the rain with her serpents gaze. "If you hadn't been so quick he would have succeeded in killing me that time. Looks like he left some subordinates behind" she said cutting off the conversation.

"We should check it out then" Jiraiya pushed off the tree and followed Takara towards the heat sources, her serpents gaze was powerful he had to admit to see heat signatures from so far in these conditions was a great feat. Thanks to the heavy rain their approach was completely undetected. There were three Sound ninjas squatting under a rock.

"What do you think he meant by putting us here to deal with someone, there's no one here!" one complained

"All that's here is rain!"

"You think he knew we where here?" Takara asked Jiraiya quietly.

"Its possible he knew I was here but he couldn't have known you were. What ever the reason we will have to deal with these sound."

"No problem" she drew her katana and nodded to Jiraiya and they both ambushed the three sound ninja.

* * *

"Nee-chan? I'm going to make some popcorn for the next movie you sure you don't want anything?" Hinata came into the room to find it empty, "Nee-chan?" Hinata scanned the room, Takara's bed was still made and the clothes she had been wearing earlier where laying on the bed, Hinata stepped into the room and trod on something wet. 

"huh?" Hinata flicked on the light to see what it was, "water?" there was a set of wet foot prints leading from the glass doors to the bathroom, "Nee-chan?" Hinata knocked at the bathroom door, the sound of the shower came from within.

"What?" came the voice from inside,

"Why is it wet in here?"

"Cuz I forgot something in the rain, had to go get it."

"Oh…okay… you want something to eat?"

"Save me some popcorn yeah?" Takara called.

"Right okay…" Hinata was suspicious, but then again Takara had done something like this before, if it was really important Takara would tell her about it later on. Takara appeared just as the second movie was starting, nothing seemed wrong expect her hair was wet, she curled up on the other sofa while Naruto and Hinata snuggled up together on the other one.

"Oi! Hinata, the movies over." Naruto gently shook Hinata awake she had fallen asleep on his shoulder.

"Come on Kit, bed, Naruto you may as well stay there, its raining too heavily for you to head back up to your campsite, I'll get you one of our sleeping bags to sleep in." While Takara fetched a sleeping bag Hinata sneaked a goodnight kiss.

"Oi, Oi, enough of that." Hinata scowled at the interruption, then after another quick peak shuffled off into the bed room. Naruto was too busy watching her to notice the sleeping bag being thrown at him.

"GRK" it got him on the head and he fell off the sofa. Takara chuckled as she helped Naruto off the floor.

"Good night kid," she said to him, this time handing him the sleeping bag.

"Night Nee-chan." Naruto said,

"Who said you could call me that?" Takara asked playfully.

"Well er…ano…" Naruto stammered.

"Relax Naruto, I was joking." Takara smiled at him.

"Well you're a scary person to joke with…" Takara raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? How's that?" Takara crossed her arms giving Naruto another scare.

"Well, you can beat up ero-sannin…"

"Yeah well he deserves it… well I'm going to bed see you in the morning kid," she gave him a small smile then went into the bedroom shutting the door behind her. Hinata was already in bed.

"Don't scare Naruto-kun Nee-chan" she said through a yawn.

"Why would I do that?" Takara said innocently Hinata just gave her a look then settled down to sleep.

"Night Nee-chan."

"yeah…"

* * *

"Takara, get your brothers will you?" 

"Hai, mother." Takara ran from the dinning room to the sparing area of the family home. "Hebi! (Serpent), Gata! (Rattle) Mother is calling you for dinner!"

"Hai, we're coming!" Takara's older brother called. "Gata, come on"

"But I've not been able to use serpents gaze yet." Gata whined.

"Stop complaining, even Takara wasn't able to use it until she was halfway through the academy. You haven't even started yet." Hebi shot back. "Come on, before mum shouts at us again." Takara and her two brothers headed back into the house.

"Where's father?" Gata asked

"With your uncle he should be back soon." Their mother replied handing out the meal. When their dad finally did appear they where nearly finished their meal.

"What took you so long pop?" Gata asked through a mouthful of rice. Olpin looked down at his youngest child and ruffled his hair.

"Ah you know those clan meetings are a pain, they dragged on longer then usual. Ain't that right uncle?" he glanced over his shoulder to the man in the shadows. Orochimaru stepped forward.

"Yes, they're troublesome but necessary"

"Will you stay for some dinner Orochimaru-sama?" Hizu offered.

"No, I won't intrude, I must move on, Tak."

"Hai!" Takara answered.

"You'll report for your training at the usual time tomorrow."

"Hai" with that Orochimaru smirked, turned and left.

"You're so lucky getting trained by uncle." Hebi pouted.

"You're already a chuunin Hebi, it's not my fault uncle thinks you're too old to train." Takara stuck out her tongue at her older brother.

"What about me!? Will uncle train me too father?" Gata piped from the end of the table

"You'll just have to wait and see, and speaking of chuunin's isn't it time you where entered in the chuunin exams Takara?" Olpin answered

"Hai, sensei is going to enter Gai, Asuma and me in the next one."

"Good, what's that?" Hizu looked out the window.

"That's the alarm!" Hebi jumped from his seat at the table.

"Takara you and the other genin get the civilians to the bunkers!" Olpin ordered.

"HAI" Takara grabbed her short sword in one hand and her younger brother in the other and pulled him out through the back of the house while the others went out the front to see what the alarm was for.

"What's going on?" Gata screamed.

"I don't know but keep running!" as soon as they got out the back door the house exploded into flames, both of them where thrown to the dirt. Takara rolled over to see what caused the explosion, rising above the house was the Kyuubi. The demon they had been warned about, it was finally here.

"Gata, get up! Run!" she pulled her little brother up, tears where streaming down his face he was frozen in fear.

"Gata, Move!" she screamed beginning to panic, when he didn't move she pulled him over her shoulders and ran towards the bunkers in the mountains. On the way she met up with the other gennin carrying out the evacuation.

"Takara what so we do?" one Royki genin asked.

"Like I would know!" she shouted back.

"Well you in the head family you should know what to do!" the other genin shouted back.

"My dad said get the civilians to the bunker, that's what we'll do!" another explosion shook the ground and Takara lost her footing. As she got back to her feet she looked over her shoulder, the Kyuubi was on top of the village most of it was in flames, but the demon kept moving, it was going straight through their small village right for the main one, and it would cut through the other clan village on the other hilltop as well. By now the alarm was raised in the main village and the bulk of the Konoha shinobi where on their way to help. Takara and the other genin had got the civilians up into the bunkers in the mountains and where now standing guard at the entrance, helplessly watching their homes being destroyed. The caves where being used by the medics to treat the injured so every now and then Takara glimpsed her mother treating the wounded.

"It's getting too close! Get further into the caves!" a shout came from outside. Takara who'd been helping with an injured jonin rushed back to the entrance, the kyuubi was cutting through the shinobi and was indeed getting to close to the cliff housing the bunkers.

"Takara take your brothers and get deeper into the caves" Hizu ordered.

"No I can still fight!" Hebi objected and pushed himself to his feet with his katana, his chest was covered in a painful burn which extended onto his neck and face.

"Nii-chan! Don't! do as mum says!" Takara begged her older brother. He reluctantly complied and limped deeper into the caves.

"Gata! Where are you!" Takara looked franticly for her little brother he was beside her just a moment ago.

"Hebi! I can't find Gata!" her words where drowned out by another nearby explosion that knocked her from her feet, that's when she saw him. Shell shocked he was staggering after their mother.

"GATA!" Takara sprinted after her brother, who by how had reached outside the cave. She skidded to a halt as she got outside, the entire landscape seemed to be on fire, there where shinobi everywhere both alive and dead, the Kyuubi was right in front of the mountain, its back towards them, it was facing off against the Fourth Hokage on his gigantic toad, but is tails still lashed around madly striking the mountain making it shake. The main village was partially destroyed, it looked like the Kyuubi had been pushed back this way, the Fourth was trying to draw it away from the bunkers. Takara's feet had frozen staring at the Kyuubi she was terrified.

"AGHHHH!" she heard her brother scream. He was lying beside a dead shinobi who had tried to get him back into the safety of the caves. His hands covered his head and he was screaming.

_Move! Move! _Takara screamed at herself, the next thing she knew she was running down the hillside and snatched up her younger brother holding him close to herself she ran back towards the caves. The Kyuubi's tails struck the cliffs again and dislodged some large rocks that fell into her path, jumping around them she kept running. She had just got into the caves mouth when Gata who was looking over her shoulder shouted a warning, Takara was struck on the shoulder blade by something hard and went down, she flung out her arms to stop herself falling on her brother.

"TAKARA!" he screamed again, and she was struck from behind again, her head smashed against the ground and the world went black.

"GATA!" Takara bolted upright in bed, she was drenched in sweat and breathing quickly. It took her a few minutes to remember where she was, neither Hinata nor Naruto where woken by her shout. But after that dream she couldn't sleep again. She went into the bath room and splashed water on her face, looking in the mirror she pushed away the flick of hair from her forehead to reveal a small scar she had gotten from that fall. She fingered the gash-like scar, which was hidden in her hair line, while the water on her face dried in.

Was it because he was here? She thought to herself looking towards the living room. Naruto was sound asleep and snoring, he was innocent but why was she angry at him, it wasn't his fault the fourth sealed the demon in him. Takara pushed away from the door frame and went back to the bedroom, Hinata was still asleep breathing quietly like she was taught. Outside the sun was barely starting to rise and the storm the night before had taken away all of the clouds, if it stayed like this then it would be a good day to travel, because it was now the eighth day they where here so they would have to move on today. Still unable to sleep Takara got dressed and went to move sure Jiraiya had gotten rid of the sounds bodies correctly, that and it got her mind off the dream.

* * *

Hinata woke up and found Takara's bed empty and bag packed, but no Takara. She stretched and got out of bed, she had slept on late again it was her holidays so why not. Naruto was still asleep in the living room, sprawled out on the sofa. Hinata decided to let him sleep on, at least until she was dressed. 

"Hey, wake up" she shook him gently and got no response, a little annoyed she shook him a little more violently and he groggily opened his eyes.

"Morning" Hinata whispered to him.

"Hey…" he yawned, "What times it?" and sat up.

"Nearly noon." She answered and gave him a little peak to wake him up a bit more, needless to say that worked.

"Did Nee-chan wake you on her way out?" Hinata asked as she helped the boy roll up the sleeping bag.

"No… I didn't hear anything" he answered back, and tied the bundle closed.

"Wonder where she went?" Hinata pondered aloud.

"Didn't you say she does this often?"

"Well yeah sometimes she goes off in the middle of the night, but she's always back before she thinks I know about it, she's never been gone this long." This wasn't like Takara and Hinata was wondering what was so wrong that it would change her behavior.

"How do you know she didn't get up just before you and went for breakfast?" Naruto asked with a definite hint in the question, which the worried Hinata failed to pick up on.

"No, it was in the middle of the night I know that much." Hinata answered.

"AW well she'll be back, but we do have the room to ourselves while she's gone." Naruto had just chucked the sleeping bag next to Hinata's travel bag and gave her a mischievous smirk. Hinata blinked at him for a second, then caught his drift.

"True…" she walked over and put her arms around Naruto's neck and he wrapped his loosely around her waist. "Why don't we make the most of it?" Hinata planted her lips on his, Naruto tightened his arms around her pulling them closer together, deepening the kiss. The door rattled as someone unlocked it and Hinata broke the kiss to see who it was. Takara stepped in the door and walked into the room with a distracted look, she didn't even notice them until she was nearly on top of them.

"Oh.. did I interrupt something?" the usual smile quickly reappeared as Takara teased.

"As a matter of fact, yes." Hinata shot back, Naruto had eased his grip as Takara came in and wondered how the older woman would have reacted, she didn't do anything expect poke a bit of fun, she had never tried to get the two apart so he thought it was okay.

"Well as beautiful as this is you are going to have to break apart eventually, we are leaving today. We have to report back to Tsunade in a week."

"But it only takes two days to walk to Konoha from here" Hinata pointed out, she had slipped her arms off Naruto's shoulders and now just stood holding one of his hands.

"Yeah but we're not going straight to Konoha, we're going to a little village a couple of days walk from here first." Takara explained as she searched the room to see if she forgot to pack anything.

"Why?" this time it was Naruto who asked.

"Because, I'm taking Hinata to learn a technique that she'd been asking about since we first met." Takara shoved a forgotten t-shirt into her bag and closed it.

"Which one?" Hinata was a little excited.

"You'll have to wait and see." Takara smirked.

"Aw I hate it when you do that Nee-chan." Hinata pouted.

"Yeah, well you do like surprises don't you, so get your stuff together we leaving after everything is sorted and we get something to eat."

"But Nee-chan!" Hinata started to argue and cast a look at Naruto.

"Don't worry about your boyfriend, Jiraiya and him are moving along today as well in the same direction as us for a day so you get to stay close to him for another while." Takara put on a cutesy voice and Hinata swung for her, but missed. "aw clam down, its just a bit of fun, now get you're stuff together."

Hinata did as she was told and with Naruto's help go all her stuff in to her travel bag, the fox plushie was sealed into a scroll by Takara because it was way to big to put in the bag, the scroll itself was put in her bag so it wouldn't be mistaken for the scrolls that held weapons. Takara settled the bill and they headed out to get lunch at a restaurant before they left town, Jiraiya joined them carrying his and Naruto's back packs. Naruto couldn't help but notice the size difference in his and Hinata's bags.

"That's cuz woman carry a mountain of unnecessary crap." Jiraiya said out of the corner of his mouth.

"No its because we don't drift from town to town and stay in hotels all the time." Takara corrected him and gave him a glare, under which Jiraiya suddenly shut up. They finished up the meal, and discovered that Jiraiya had disappeared when it came time to pay the bill, Takara paid the bill with a scowl. Jiraiya meet up with them on the road on the way out of town with a red hand mark on his face.

"You where caught again weren't you?" Naruto asked, Jiraiya ignored him,

"Ah who needs them where I've got two lovely ladies traveling with me." He clapped Hinata on the right shoulder.

"AGH!" she shouted and clutched her still tender shoulder, both Naruto and Takara swung for Jiraiya, Takara got him on the face, Naruto in the stomach. Because of the slap Hinata couldn't carry her heavy pack anymore so Naruto offered to carry hers and she took his lighter pack. Takara led the way with Hinata and Naruto behind her and Jiraiya bringing up the rear, well out of reach of Takara.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked, Hinata had been staring ahead with a concerned look.

"I dunno, Nee-chan's never been this quiet… gimme a sec." Hinata quickened her pace to catch up with Takara.

"What's up Kit?" Takara asked producing a smile as Hinata caught up.

"Can I ask you something? I mean you don't have to answer if you don't want to…"

"No I'm not spoiling the surprise for you…"

"No not that…"

"What then?"

"Who's Gata?" The smile on Takara's face disappeared in an instant, and she looked ahead again.

"Where'd you hear that?"

"It's not the first time you've had that dream Nee-chan…" Hinata told her, Takara had been woken by that dream before but Hinata never mentioned it because Takara never did, but she was never this quiet after them before either. Takara was silent for a while as they continued walking, Hinata was about to go back to Naruto thinking Takara wasn't going to answer when she suddenly said,

"Gata's my little brother."

"What happened?" Hinata pressed Takara never really talked about her family bar her older brother.

"He died… in the Kyuubi attack, he was six…" after that Takara trailed off and Hinata went back to Naruto. Naruto had a grim face on him and was holding his stomach, looking anywhere but at Takara. They walked on, Hinata and Naruto chatted away on about where they had been and what they had learned, Jiraiya daydreamed and Takara thought back to what had happened after the dream.

* * *

When she woke someone was carrying her, Takara opened her eyes to see her uncle holding her and taking her to the medics in the tunnel. Takara tried to speak but her head was fuzzy and throbbed painfully. The wound on her fore head was bleeding heavily despite the piece of torn sleeve wrapped around her head. Orochimaru set her down in a corner next to Hebi who was sleeping under a sedative. Gata was set down next to her, his head was also bleeding and he moaned in his sleep. 

"Uncle…"

"Sssh Tak, don't speak, just stay there." Orochimaru disappeared from her limiting vision and she blacked out again. Next thing she knew she was laying on the ground, her mother was crouched over her carefully wrapping her head in a bandage.

"Mother you're hurt." Takara mumbled feebly, noticing the bandage wrapped around the length of her mother's arm, with numerous red blotches on it from underneath.

"I'll live, now be quiet and stay still or you'll open your wound again." Her mother looked tired.

"Where's Gata…"

"Asleep…now hush." Orochimaru appeared over her mothers shoulder.

"Here's that serum I was talking about, it should help these two pull through." He handed Hizu two vials with a dark blue liquid.

"Arigatou, Orochimaru-sama" Hizu took the two vials and prepared the needles.

"What's that?" Takara asked form her prone position on the floor.

"It's something your uncle made, a serum to help you get better. Now hold still." Hizu held her daughters arm as Orochimaru injected the liquid into a vein, they then repeated the process on Gata who was laying nearby.

"Now you try and get some sleep." Hizu said and gave Takara a quick kiss on the forehead. Takara didn't need telling twice and was asleep in a few moments and it was the last time she saw her mother alive. Takara had caught a fever before she recovered and was confined to a hospital for nearly two weeks before she was able to comprehend what was going on around her. She woke up in an over crowded room with Orochimaru looking over her chart.

"You're awake…" he smirked, "How you feeling?"

"What happened?" she croaked, her throat was dry and sore.

"You caught a fever after the attack" Orochimaru answered simply. "but it looks like you'll pull through."

"Pull through?" she was still groggy and wasn't registering what he was telling her.

"Tell you what, you stay put and I'll fetch your father." Orochimaru hung the chart on the end of the bed and walked around to her. "Here, drink something." He poured a glass of water and pressed it into her shaky hands. While she tried to drink without dropping the cup Orochimaru left to fetch her father.

"Takara!" she looked up at her father's voice.

"Father!?" she looked at the man in the wheelchair coming into the room, this couldn't be her father, Olpin didn't need a wheelchair, and his hair was waist length like hers and Orochimaru's, this man had no hair, sunken features and his skin was almost translucent. Takara was about to call for someone but noticed the mans eyes, which although brimming with tears where familiar, it was her father. Olpin rolled over to the bed and pulled her into a hug and she winced because of a pain in her back. She hissed in pain and her father lessened his grip but still held her shoulders as if she would disappear if he let her go. Hebi, made the next appearance and made almost the same reaction as Olpin, but couldn't hug her due to her father still holding her. Hebi looked as bad as her father his hair was almost burned away like their fathers, the burn on his face didn't leave a scar but it did on his neck he was also missing his pinkie and third finger on his right hand, in comparison to most other shinobi, his injuries where rather mild. But he looked like he had just got out of a hospital bed as well, he even had the IV still in his arm and the bag on a pole trundling along beside him.

"You're lucky, you know." Her father started. "that rock would have shattered her spine if you hadn't been wearing your sword on her back, and that fever too, we had to resuscitate you, but you're alright now" he smiled and the tears brimmed over and streamed down his face while he hugged her again.

"Where's Gata and Mother?" the smiles on the men's faces faded, her brother and father looked away, it was Orochimaru who answered.

"You brother's injuries where to severe, he died before we could get him any real help, and your mother… she was burned by the demons fire, her blood was poisoned, I'm afraid she died a few days ago…"

Takara was dumbstruck, she didn't know what to say, do or think. Gata was dead, because she wasn't watching him closely enough, it was her fault, no one else seemed to notice it, they where glad she was alive, they praised her along with the other genin who helped protect the civilians. Why no one was angry with her, she felt like this was crushing her. At last she voiced this concern to the person she was the closest to since her mother was now gone, Orochimaru.

"What? You want someone to shout at you, blame you?" Orochimaru asked her.

"I don't know, I mean shouldn't father hate me, I was meant to be looking after Gata, I let him get hurt…" Takara was almost in tears. Orochimaru sat on the bed next to her.

"Look Tak, that is true, but you where also looking after a lot of other people, Gata wondered off on his own, he was scared and confused just like you where."

"But that doesn't make it alright!" Takara said.

"No, but what does is that you risked your life to get him back to safety."

"But I didn't get him there."

"You tried and that was all you could do… I'm sure Gata wouldn't ask for anymore, you father is just glad that you're live, Gata's death isn't your fault Tak, don't let it cling to you." Orochimaru told her.

"but uncle…"

"That's enough!" he snapped. Takara fell silent and played with her waist length hair, she had let it grow long like her uncles as did the rest of her family, or at least they did. "Now Tak, your back is healed and you've recovered from the fever, they're discharging you tomorrow. Hebi is already back at the clan village relaying your fathers orders to rebuild the village, he should be in here for another while."

"Did the test results come back about fathers legs?"

"Yes it looks like he won't walk again… but anyway, once you get out of here you're to go help your brother, until there's some stability in the clan we'll put off other training sessions."

"Hai uncle…" Takara answered.

"Now then, you'll speak no more of Gata's death being your fault, you understand me." It was an order with no compassion behind it.

"Hai…"

"Now I have to go, your teammates are coming to visit you soon so wipe your eyes." Orochimaru pushed himself off the bed and left the room with out a backward glance at the girl in the bed.

"Nee-chan?"

"Huh?" Takara looked up as Hinata interrupted her thoughts, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing, we're just gonna stop for something to eat."

"Oh right okay" Takara followed Hinata off the road and helped build a cooking fire. Takara had admitted long ago that her cooking was crap and allowed Hinata to prepare the meals which just furthered Hinata's point about Takara's cooking. Naruto goofed off making jokes and playing about with Hinata's ANBU mask again while Hinata giggled and prepared a stew, Jiraiya had buggered off again leaving them to do the work. Once the meal was ready and shared out, Jiraiya getting the smallest portion because he cleared off, Takara sank back into her memories.

* * *

It was a year and a half after the Kyuubi attack, the villages were rebuild, grass had re-grown, the wildlife had moved back into the surrounding woods. Takara's sweetheart had even pointed out that the herds of deer his family reared where getting along well after most of the herd was destroyed, seven new foals where born that spring. Everything was recovering except the damage in the peoples memories. Takara was standing in front of the memorial stone looking at her mothers name, she had always felt her mothers sprit was in this area, so she would come every now and again just to try and feel close to her mother again. It was a mutual feeling for the friends and relatives of everyone who's name was craved on the stone, and it was an unwritten rule that if someone was alone at the stone they shouldn't be disturbed. Takara had even had to come back that day because Iruka was already at the stone, he had lost both his parents so his belief of sprits being there was stronger. Today Takara was there to tell her mother that she had passed the chuunin exams. She stood with her new flak jacket and just listened to the silence and let her waist length hair blow in the wind. 

"It's not nice to sneak up on people uncle…" she said.

"I know…" he was silent for a while scanning the names on the stone before he continued. "are you still having those dreams?"

"The ones with the cages, yes… they're getting more frequent but I can never remember the details in the mornings." Orochimaru smirked out of Takara's view.

"That aside, I came to tell you something important." Orochimaru answered.

"What is it?" Takara turned away from the stone to face her uncle.

"I'll be leaving soon and there's something I want to do before I do."

"I thought you had gone to help the search parties find father?" Olpin had gone missing the week before, he was a proud man and never accepted the fact he could no longer look after himself and rarely accepted help he would often travel to the main village on his own in his wheel chair but the week before he didn't come back.

"Yes well, you and I both know he's off pouting somewhere again, he'll sit in the woods for a week to prove he can then come back." Orochimaru waved off the question. "Now this is important Tak so come with me." He beckoned her to follow him, she did. He led her to the cabin on a hill above the clan village, it was a place they had often used for training. Orochimaru led the way into the cabin and lifted a trap door on the floor and jumped down into a tunnel, Takara followed, she had always been curious about what was down there but was forbidden to enter. Orochimaru led the way down the darkening tunnel until they reached a door, Takara caught a glimpse of Orochimaru's face in the dull light, it almost looked like he was grinning insanely. Orochimaru stepped back and let her open the door. It swung open to revel a familiar scene, in the centre of the room was a table with restraints bolted to it. The far wall was covered in shelves filled with scrolls, books and jars with horrible things preserved in them. On the left wall was a glass front fridge filled with a large number of vials labeled with mostly short hand scribbles legible to none but the writer, but a few bore labels like 'blood sample – Royki Olpin', 'blood sample – Royki Hebi' and 'blood sample – Tak' the worst thing was on the right wall, a cage, the same from her dreams, and on the floor was her father, his hands chained behind his back and in turn to the wall.

"Father!" Takara sprinted into the room wrenched open the cage door and crouched next to her father.

"Takara… get out of here." He whispered hoarsely. The door to the room slammed closed behind her and Orochimaru stood in front of it. Takara set her fathers head gently on the ground and partly drew her short sword as she swiveled on her hunches to face the grinning Orochimaru.

"Tell me uncle, how many times did you bring me here to experiment with your poisons then wipe my memory with genjutsu?" she hissed, serpents eyes wheeling in anger.

"Ah so you remember now… I knew it was only a matter of time before that didn't work anymore, still you're here now…" he slid a bolt across the door locking it and slapped a seal on the lock, one that couldn't be released in a hurry.

"And father?" she demanded.

"Well he started to notice you're account of some of our 'training sessions' didn't quite add up so he started snooping around, I can't have that so lets get this over with."

"Like I'll let you!" She spat back.

"Ah my dear little Tak…" he said softly before lowering his voice to sound more dangerous, "You don't have a choice!" and he darted forward, Takara fully drew her blade and swiped at him but he disappeared, and reappeared behind her.

"fast!" she tried to turn but he had already kicked her in the back sending her sprawling to the floor, she jumped up only to find he was no longer where he had attacked from, he came at her from the side but she blocked him and threw him back.

"Good Tak, Good… at least you paid attention during the real sessions." He teased, "but there's one bad habit you never got rid of…" his grin got wider making him look like a mad man. "You're useless emotions." With that he threw a kunai at her father who was too weak to get out of the way, Takara dived to intercept the kunai, she missed it with her hand but caught it on the armored shoulder of her flak jacket. Before she could recover from that Orochimaru got beside her and delivered a powerful kick to her head. She staggered into the cage doorway and grabbed the frame for support. Orochimaru moved in, punching and kicking relentlessly, never giving her the chance to counter. He punched her in the chest and she lost her grip on the frame and staggered back into the cage and against the far wall. Orochimaru stalked in after her and catching her by the neck forced her against the wall, cutting off her air.

"Aw… see Tak as big and strong as you get your uncle will always be stronger." Takara clawed at his arm which was holding her off the ground now and kicked at his legs, but lack of air was weakening her strikes. She was beginning to black out when Orochimaru released his grip and let her slid to the ground, blackness ate away at the edges of her vision. Orochimaru smirked at her on the ground.

"Well then Tak, what do you say to one final session? But first…" he reached back and lifted Takara's short sword which she had dropped when he kicked her. "let's tie up one last loose end." With that he plunged the sword into Olpin's neck severing his spine and killing him instantly. Takara slowly stared wide eyed as her father's blood flicked onto her face and as she blacked out that image was burned into her memory.

When she next awoke she found herself strapped to the table in the centre of the room. With thick leather restraints on her wrists, ankles, waist, chest and neck she was completely immobile, and she quickly noticed that as she pulled on the restraints.

"Come now Tak you know that won't work…" came a voice from somewhere above her head. Orochimaru stepped into her line of sight. "aw look what you've done… you've cut yourself." He spoke as if to a young child as he touched her arm just above the wrist where her pulling on the rough leather had cut the skin. She let loose a stream of curses and threats but none where heard as a rubber bite-stick was in her mouth.

"Come now there's no need for that…" he set a syringe on the table, then pulled over a machine on a small cart, a heart monitor. He chatted to Takara almost normally about her performance in the chuunin exams and how he was proud of her as he attached the three sensors to her chest. Takara was hissing angrily so much so that spittle was shooting from the gaps in the bite stick.

"Now stop that, anyone would think you had rabies or something… although now that I think of it, that's one I never did get to try. Oh well, I'll just have to get another Royki with exceptional poison resistance." He muttered to himself as if he had just forgotten to get cheese on a burger. He lifted the syringe and gave it a little flick to make sure the contents had fully liquefied, then removed the plastic top. He slapped her arm to bring up a vein then injected it. Takara recognized the syringe it was identical to the one he had handed her mother to give to her and her little brother the year and a half ago. Gata hadn't died of his injuries, Orochimaru had poisoned him as an experiment. Orochimaru with drew the needle from her arm,

"And now… we wait." He smiled at her like he used to when she did well in a training session. At first there was nothing and Orochimaru tutted as he checked the heart monitor, Takara continued to utter vulgarities through the bite stick but all where muffled. Suddenly she got light headed and started sweating, the beeping of the heart monitor got faster.

"ah a result, lets see if this is the poison that will kill the Roykis" he smirked as he checked the monitor again. Takara suddenly felt like her heart had exploded and sent fire through her veins instead of blood, she arched her back and bit down hard on the bite stick. Orochimaru smiled to himself as he watched her. A buzzer went off somewhere behind the table and Orochimaru scowled.

"Time to go, well bye Tak" he said and patted her on the head as she fought against the restraints, the bite-stick was nearly ready to give way she was biting so hard. She never found out how he got out of that lab because there was only one door and a few seconds after he disappeared from her view that door burst open and Jiraiya barged into the room closely followed by a number of ANBU.

"Sweet fuck!" Jiraiya ran forward and tried to undo the restraints on Takara but in her convulsing had them pulled too tight.

"That antidote the Third found in his other lab, quick!" he called to an ANBU behind him as the heart monitor was bleeping at an unsustainable rate. A hawk masked ANBU ran forward and pulled out another syringe, it took Jiraiya and another ANBU to hold one of her arms still enough to inject the cloudy liquid. The antidote took effect quickly, it was almost like ice had replaced the fire in her veins and she stopped writhing, Jiraiya undid the restraints while the ABNU searched the remainder of the room. They found no sign of Orochimaru, he was gone.

After she got the cuts on her ankles, wrist and neck closed off by one of the ANBU, Takara went to warn her brother about Orochimaru's betrayal and the murder of the clan head. The next day not a single Royki bore the traditional long hair style which every Royki wore to resemble the sannin from their clan, but after that none wanted to associated with him. Takara had been the first to cut her hair.

"I never did thank you for that day…" Takara said quietly to Jiraiya that night after they had set up camp.

"We could have got there sooner." Jiraiya answered after he released she hadn't come over to hit him.

"It wouldn't have made too much of a difference, he still would have escaped…"

"I suppose, but if one of us runs into him again, we'll not hold back." Jiraiya said

"Deal…" both fell silent and stared out across the river they camped near, both nursing grudges.

* * *

"Come on Nee-chan tell me!" Hinata demanded, Takara was in a better mood the next day and was back to her old self again. 

"Alright! If I tell you will you stop annoying me?" Takara shot back.

"Yup!" Hinata said Naruto giggled at Hinata's prodding of Takara.

"Fine! Dear Kami!" Takara said with a chuckle. "We're going to a village in the north of Fire country to meet with an old friend of mine who owes me a favor, or five. So I'm gonna ask him to explain the process of the branded summon technique." Takara answered.

"AW cool!" Hinata and Naruto said to each other.

"OH, a dragon! NO! a tiger! OH OH a fox!" Hinata started listing off animals she would want but couldn't decide.

"But relax we're not even there yet." Hinata tried to contain her excitement with little success. At lunch Jiraiya announced that the boys were going to split up from Takara and Hinata later on that day. Naruto decided now was the best time to tell Hinata. While Jiraiya and Takara argued over his 'research' Naruto took Hinata's hand and led her a bit away from the camp.

"Got a goodbye present for me?" Hinata joked and wrapped her arms around his neck waiting for the kiss, but it didn't come. "What's wrong?"

"There's something I have to tell you before I'd feel comfortable with 'us'. I don't wanna deceive you…" he started looking into her pearl like eyes.

"What is it?" she asked a little apprehensive.

"The reason most people in the village hate me…" Hinata had pulled back a bit to look at him square in the face. "You know how the Fourth got rid of the Kyuubi?"

"Yeah he sealed it away… why?" Naruto sighed and continued

"He did seal it away, he sealed it in to a new born child… me… the demon that destroyed the village, killed so many people is inside me." Hinata just stared at him. "I'll understand if you don't want to stay with me…" he muttered looking away from her.

"You baka…" Hinata muttered. "You think I'd leave you because of that? It's not your fault the demon attacked, and that doesn't make you a demon!" she pulled him closer, finally getting the answer to a question that had been burning in her for so long. The older generation was just scared of what was inside him, and in turn, of him, something he didn't deserve. It just made her love him all the more because he would open up to her like that. She felt his arms wrap around her back and she snuggled her head in to his shoulder and he rested his chin on top of her head.

"Love you…" Hinata whispered into his jacket. Naruto smiled and repeated it back to her.

_End chapter 30_

* * *

_A cookie to the first person who guesses who Takara's crush was when she was younger, clues in chapter 29 and this one._

_Right I've had my say now I'm going back to bed with my fox plushie… and pet cat…_

_**Er, right… read and review please and thank you,**_

**_(also, Hizu and Olpin aren't japanese names, my bad i think they're Cantonise or koren, dunno heard them in a film)_**


	31. Chapter 31: Fox Called Faith

_If ya wanna know why its so late is because my internet hates me… that and I'm stuck working night shifts so most the time I'm too tired to write too much_

_**Yeah the internet in her house is crap it keeps cutting out on her, the sooner you change providers the better**_

_I know! Enjoy, don't expect the next update after this to be any quicker I'm stuck on nights again_

* * *

**A Fox Called Faith**

Naruto and Hinata stayed there like that for a while long after the argument between Jiraiya and Takara had ended, more than likely because Takara punched him, (A/N Takara seems very violent towards Jiraiya doesn't she…. He's a pervert he deserves it).

"Now that they've stopped, they're gonna notice we're gone, we should get back before Ero gets any ideas." Naruto said into her hair, reluctant to let her go.

"I suppose…" Hinata gave him one last squeeze and they broke apart heading back to camp, hand in hand.

_FLASH_

"Sorry it was too cute…" Takara was standing there with a camera.

"HEY!" Hinata protested as the camera spat out the photo, Takara gave it a shake to get it to develop.

"Oh relax its cute" Takara shot and looked at the photo, "See" she handed the photo over to the couple. In the picture they where holding hands and looking at each other with little smiles.

"I suppose…" Hinata muttered.

"Alright pose for this one." Takara held up the camera, before Hinata could object Naruto wrapped an arm around her shoulders and smiled widely holding up his other hand in the victory sign. Hinata laughed at him and mirrored his pose.

_FLASH_

"There beautiful!" Takara called laughing, "Couldn't let you guys leave each other without a photo at least." Takara handed over the latest photo to them. The two spent the rest of the lunch break debating who got which. Naruto got the posed one and Hinata took the mushy one.

"Alright Kit, we're going back into fire country, you know what that means." Takara said.

"Yeah, two seconds…" Hinata dove into her travel bag and reappeared with the mask and glasses and put them on. "Herrreee's Monoki!" she joked. Takara sent charka into her purple hair making it turn brown again.

"Okay then we're good to go" Takara started off Naruto and Hinata followed, Naruto muttered how he preferred her hair being purple, and Jiraiya followed behind nursing his latest injury from Takara. After a few hours they came to a fork in the road. Jiraiya tapped Naruto on the shoulder,

"This is where we leave you" he said, Naruto pouted so did Hinata.

"Alright one last photo, where's the timer on this thing?" Takara fiddled with the camera while the other three got into a pose, Jiraiya in the back with Naruto and Hinata standing in front. Takara found the timer by the camera going off in her face, then after ripping up the extreme close up of her eye, balanced the camera on a rock and set the timer.

"Right smile, its gonna take a few pictures" she told them as she went to stand behind Hinata.

_FLASH_

_FLASH_

_FLASH_

"PERVERT!"

_FLASH_

_Thump_

_FLASH_

"Huh?"

_FLASH_

The first two pictures turned out okay but on the third Jiraiya's eyes wondered down towards Takara's V-neck t-shirt, on the fourth Takara spotted him and the vein was apparent on her forehead, the fifth was a classic mid-strike shot where Takara's fist had just made contact with Jiraiya's face, and the last shot was of Takara shaking a fist at him on the ground and the two teens half turned to see what happened.

"Now I like this one." Takara held up the mid-strike picture.

"Yeah you would…" Jiraiya muttered pinching his nose. Naruto took one of the first pictures where they're smiling.

"You could have taken off your mask and glasses for this one you know." He said to Monoki.

"Well yeah but then I wouldn't be able to show it to the guys back at Konoha, and tell them that I meet the guy whose apartment we hang out in."

"yeah okay… wait what about my apartment?" Naruto perked, but before Monoki answered Jiraiya declared that it was time to go.

"well bye for now Naruto, I'll send Ryuu with letters when I can." Monoki squeezed him in a big hug which he returned then ran his hand up her face to gently pull down her mask then lent in to give her a kiss.

"What the?" Jiraiya started,

"Don't tell me you write those 'romance' novels and you didn't even catch on that those two are dating?" Takara muttered, Jiraiya sputtered and Takara dragged him away to give the teens some privacy. After the two teens broke apart they shouldered their bags and with a final sad look the two groups started off in different directions. Needless to say Monoki was a little depressed for a while after that.

* * *

"Hey, snap out of it we're here." Takara clicked her fingers in front of Monoki's vacant face. It was nearly nightfall but they had made it to the village just before the sun disappeared below the horizon. The village they where walking into was at the bottom of a valley and was pretty small, with wooden houses, it looked like a farming village as there where plowed fields everywhere with small seedlings just starting to poke out through the dirt, there was also a number of fenced off fields with cattle and sheep.

"While I was here with the scholar, the dam further up that valley cracked and was starting to break, they weren't able to get anyone up there to fix it before it broke because of all the steep cliffs. But I got the builders up there with Pusa, so they where pretty happy with me and I got these." Takara patted her branded summoning tattoos on her arms.

"This is the village with the jutsu?" Hinata asked.

"Yup, now where did Jinta live again?" Takara stopped at the gate to the village and scratched her head.

_CRASH_

A dust cloud and a loud bang came from a sake house in the main street.

"There he is…" Takara started off own towards the commotion, Monoki trotted behind. The bar in question just had its door blown of its hinges, lying in the street was a few men, dazed. Stepping out the door was a huge man nearly completely covered in tattoos. On his bald head was a spread winded eagle, on his chest was a bear, spanning his shoulders was a green dragon and on his arms where samurais. He stalked out the door towards the three in the street.

"You think just cuz there's three of you, you can come here and try to rob my mothers store!" he man snarled, the three man scrabbled to their feet and ran down the street.

"Get back here!" the huge man bellowed,

"No chance!" one shouted back and ran for the gate, but they where stopped. Takara clothes lined two of them and Monoki drop kicked the other.

"Lose something Jinata?" Takara said to the huge man as he skidded to a halt in front of them. He blinked a few times at the two women standing on the bandits.

"Ta-Takara-san!" He jumped forward and swept her off her feet, backpack and all, in a bear hug.

"Hey! Hey! Put me down!" Takara called, Monoki just watched not sure of what was happening here. "Jinata! Put me down!" Takara called again, this time he complied and put her back down on her feet. The guy stood head and shoulders above Takara who was a good 5, 10 or 5, 11 so this guy must have been bordering on 7 foot Monoki thought to herself.

"Yeah I missed you too…" Takara said after getting much needed air to her lungs. "How is everyone?" Takara asked the huge man.

"Well mum's fine as always, Natsumi (summer child) is about somewhere." He answered as he hoisted two of the would-be bandits on his broad shoulders and grabbed the third by his belt and hoisted him off ground. Takara and Monoki waited in the street while Jinata threw the men out of the village.

"Who's Natsumi?" Monoki whispered before he came back.

"His little sister, Jinata may look tough but he's really got a soft touch really." Takara answered back, Jinata came back up the road dusting off his hands.

"So what brings you back here then?" he asked.

"I was heading back to Konoha and I passed close by so we decided to drop in." Takara smiled as he offered to take their bags. Takara declined his offer but swiped Monoki's from her shoulder because Jinata insisted on helping and Monoki's shoulder was still a bit stiff.

"Mum! Guess whose here" Jinata called as he entered the sake bar and was assaulted by a wooden spoon.

"Baka! You'd better fix that door." A small old woman was the wielder of the dangerous spoon. Jinata held his head where the spoon struck and Monoki wondered how it was physically possible for such a small person to reach Jinata's head.

"Yes mum…" Jinata whined and went outside to get the door that was laying in the street. The small woman glared after her son as he went out the door he set Monoki's pack on the ground at the two women stepped out of his way.

"Eh? Takara-san!" the old woman smiled.

"Akemi-san, any free rooms for the night?" Takara grinned down at the small woman. (Akemi-Bright beauty)

"Come in, come in, out of the cold" the small grey haired woman ushered the two of them into the main room of the bar. The front room of the house was devoted to the bar but upstairs was rooms open for rent. A hired bar man was overseeing the bar and cleaning up the glasses smashed by the would be bandits before Jinata stepped in. Akemi led them into the private area behind the bar, through the kitchen and into a dining area. Takara sat down at the table as she was told and Monoki followed. Not long after they sat down Jinata reappeared and sat down at the table as well. Akemi hurried off to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of soup.

"Akemi-san's soup is great, well worth the trip." Takara said to Monoki. Akemi spooned out large bowls of the soup and chatted with Takara. When his mother finally stopped Jinata cut in.

"So whose you little friend?" he asked and slurped up his soup, earning another clonk on the head.

"don't slurp!" his mother scolded.

"This is Monoki, my apprentice." Monoki gave a little wave after she swallowed the mouthful of soup, since it was still rather far from Konoha it was safe to show her face at least, her eyes where still covered. Takara jumped as a meow sounded behind her, it was a black cat with a little white nose.

"oh it's just Puss…" Takara reached around and scratched the cats head as it trotted past to its own bowl of food in the corner.

"Mama! I'm home!" came a voice from the kitchen, and a young girl, around the same age as Monoki came into the room.

"Hey Natsumi" Takara grinned.

"Takara-san!" the girl bounded around the table and glomped Takara, "I haven't seen you in years!"

"Safe to say ya missed me then" Takara grinned and pried the young girl off and introduced her to Monoki. Turned out this was the hotel that Takara and the scholar had stayed in while they where here and Takara had gotten on well with Jinata and Natsumi, while the scholar did his research Takara hung around the house and got to know the family that ran it, and after the dam incident everyone just liked her all the more. Monoki was getting on well with Natsumi and the two girls chatted away happily while Takara talked to the older too.

"Hey you have two cats" Monoki picked up the ginger and black cat that had wondered into the room. The cat purred as Monoki scratched its furry chin.

"Yeah it was just a kitten when Takara-san last saw her… we named her Treasure." Takara, on hearing her name, turned around.

"AGH! Get that monster away from me!" she jumped back away from the ginger and black cat.

"But Takara-san we named it after you…" Natsumi whined (Takara-treasure)

"How sweet you named the homicidal cat after me" Takara had put Jinata between herself and the cat.

"Nee-chan, I thought you liked cats…" Monoki said.

"I like cats but that 'thing' is not a cat, its Satan reincarnated in feline form." Takara pointed at the cat who was innocently licking its front paw. Monoki looked from the cat on her knee to Takara behind Jinata.

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, Takara-san has a point Takara-chan just doesn't seem to like Takara-san, and Takara-chan will often attack Takara-san." Jinata pointed out.

"Wha?" Both Monoki and Natsumi had gone crossed trying to understand what he had just said. Akemi sighed

"Takara-san is the person, Takara-chan is the cat…" she explained.

"Oh…" the two teens replied, Monoki looked down at the cat and couldn't help but think that Takara was over-reacting. But still while the cat was in the room Takara refused to allow it anywhere near her, so Akemi lifted it and placed it out side the room. Only then did Takara sit back down.

"So anyway before the little demon came in, you got a new tattoo Jinata" Takara pointed out and helped Akemi stack the dishes. "I must say it looks a little familiar" she grinned as Jinata rubbed the back of his neck and grinned.

"Yeah well if something goes wrong at the dam again we'll want our own way up." Takara was reffering to the green dragon stretched across his shoulders.

"So it is a branded one."

"Yeah, speaking of branded, how big can you get your panthers now?" Jinata asked pointing his spoon at Takara's arms.

"A lot bigger than when you last saw them." Takara smirked.

"Oh you'll have to show me then" he smirked back.

"Oh boy…" Natsumi sighed

"What?" Monoki asked.

"It's the only thing Jinata could beat Takara in, Jinata may be big and stronger than most men but when it comes to a trained shinobi he stands no chance. After Takara got her branded summon it was Jinata who taught her how to use it and his where always bigger than hers so he gloated every time he could. But I'm going to guess she's gotten better over the years we haven't seen her. Come on this should be fun." Natsumi pushed herself up from the table and beckoned Monoki to follow her out to the back garden where Jinata and Takara where now standing. Jinata summoned one of his samurai, it came out man sized with a sword. Takara summon Si, it was around three foot from the ground to its chin, bigger than a normal panther but much smaller than Monoki had seen it.

"Huh well then, it's better that what you use to have" Jinata summoned his other samurai, this one with a pike. Takara in response summoned So the same size as Si.

"Huh okay so you can make them the same size how about this then." The two samurai's disappeared and Jinata summoned the bear, again it was a natural size, Takara recalled Si and So and summoned them again this time larger than Monoki had ever seen them, they both drew level with Takara's head. Jinata scowled,

"Alright then how about this then!" the bear disappeared and he summoned the dragon, an exact likeness to Pusa and around the same size. Takara let out a whistle

"Nice…" She recalled both panthers and just summoned Si this time.

"Whoa!" Monoki jumped back she had never seen the panther this big, Takara was only half the size of the panther. But it was still a foot short of the Pusa look-a-like.

"Dam…" Takara muttered, and recalled Si, Jinata recalled his dragon and strutted back into the house, Takara walked in behind as she past by the two girls Natsumi whispered,

"You held back didn't you?" Takara winked and put her finger to her lips.

"Alright Jinata don't even start," Takara said as she reentered the room. "and speaking of branded summons, I wanted to look into Monoki getting one."

"Aye…" Jinata scratched his chin and looked over at Monoki. "I'll cast her the same challenge I gave you, Takara-san" Takara rolled her eyes.

"You sure you wanna do that? She had been trained by me." Jinata stopped and thought about this for a second,

"Well in that case, if you reckon she's worthy of it I can arrange it for you." Jinata shrugged. Takara chuckled.

"What?" Monoki asked Natsumi.

"He challenged Takara to knock him out before he would let her get the tattoos, she did it in two strikes, then again that was before he found out she was a Leaf shinobi." Both girls chuckled along with Takara. Akemi went to bed not long after the meal but the four others stayed and chatted well into the night until Takara yawned.

"Reckon it's time to sleep then?" Jinata asked to no one,

"Yeah…" Takara repiled anyway.

"Hey Natsumi will you show them to the room we stashed their bags in?" Jinata asked his little sister.

"Yeah okay" Natsumi led the way upstairs to one of the guest rooms.

"Night Takara-san, Night Monoki-san" she called before leaving.

"Night Natsumi-chan" Monoki called back.

"There ya go, we'll arrange for you to get the tattoo tomorrow." Takara said and lifted her bag up on to the bed, "What are you smirking about?"

"I can't believe you're scared of a cat." Takara scowled.

"That cat is evil, it has it out for me AGGGHHH!" as she opened her bag the little cat jumped out of the bag hissing loudly and clamped on to Takara's face. Monoki laughed her head off as Takara wrestled to pry the little monster off receiving many bites to her hands, finally she got it off and threw it out the door, closing it quickly in case it came back in. Takara panted heavily.

"I TOLD YOU!" she glared at Monoki who couldn't stop laughing, she was laughing more at the four sets of claw marks on the sides of Takara's face. "It's not funny!" Takara snapped and hit Monoki over the head with a pillow. This only lowered the volume of the laughs to quiet chuckles as they got changed.

"Hey, Nee-chan?" Monoki asked lying in bed.

"Humm?" Takara looked over from her own bed.

"Do tattoo's hurt as much as they're made out to be?" she asked.

"Well yeah, it is a bunch of needles injecting ink under your skin" Takara heard the audible gulp from the other bed.

"Ah relax you're only getting one and the chakra numbs you a bit, so its not that sore." Takara said, and gave the pillow a punch to fluff it up a bit. There was a little whimper from the other bed.

"Would it make you feel better if I got one too?"

"Yes…" Takara chuckled and shook her head before lying down again,

"Have you decided what it is you want yet?"

"No… I can't decide between a fox or a white tiger." Monoki stifled a yawn and snuggled deeper into the warm blanket.

"Well you're only getting one, so decide."

"AW Nee-chan!" Monoki moaned.

"You where scared about it being painful two seconds ago, if you're scared of getting one your not getting two, I'm going to get enough grief for letting you get one, it is a tattoo remember."

"I suppose, night Nee-chan."

"night Kit"

* * *

"AGHHHHHH!!!!" Monoki shot up wake awake at the scream, the bedroom door was slightly open and the little ginger and black cat had come in and attacked Takara. Takara grabbed the demon cat by the scruff of the neck, yanked it off her face and held it at arms length, Treasure (A/N I'll be referring to the cat as Treasure cuz it will just get confusing.) she hissed and spat, and of course being a cat with a flexible spine it twisted around and latched all four sets of claws into Takara's arm. After another pained shout Takara wrenched the cat off and threw it out the door and slammed it closed, Takara leant against the door and slid down it.

"I'm starting to think that you weren't overreacting to that cat…" Monoki said from the bed.

"Ya think!" Takara shot back.

After breakfast and escaping another attempt by Treasure, Monoki and Takara headed down the street to the tattoo parlor. Jinata, who worked there sometimes, had arranged for Monoki to get a branded summon tattoo.

"Alright while they get the stuff ready, I'll explain how you do the summon." Jinata started. "First you focus charka to the area where the tattoo is then smear some blood on it, then puff! You got a creature."

"That's the basics but it's not that simple, it takes a bit of practice…" Takara cut in from behind Jinata.

"Well yeah there's that too. So whatya want and where ya want it?" Jinata asked pulling on a pair of latex gloves, he pulled out the glove and let it snap back on his wrist, "OW, ohh that stings…"

"er… how about a fox on my left forearm?" Monoki asked.

"Right what do want it to look like?" Jinata asked selecting the correct colors for the fox.

"Some thing like this, and this one for me." Takara handed him a sketch pad, Takara had already asked Monoki how she'd like it and drew it to her liking on the paper. Takara's cover story of being an artisan wasn't really far from the truth, she could make great drawings, another thing Monoki wanted to learn from her. Jinata ripped off the bottom of the sheet and handed it to another tattoo artist who was to do Takara's tattoo, Monoki didn't get to see what Takara was getting.

"Right then, lets get started" Jinata said and started infusing the needles and inks with chakra.

"Hey Jinata, be gentle yeah?" Takara called from the other side of the room where the other artist had already started on her, she was just getting a normal tattoo on the small of her back.

"Don't worry about it, ready?" Monoki gulped and nodded. It took about an hour and a half for both woman to get the tattoos completed. Monoki's fox turned out rather well and the detail Jinata went into was amazing, the fox was on her left forearm and was in a great 3D effect it looked like it was going to run off her hand. Jinata gave it a final wipe with a disinfectant wipe then wrapped it in a bandage.

"Keep it wrapped for a few days until its ready."

"There told you it wasn't that bad" Takara walked up fixing her t-shirt down over the bandage on her back.

"Yeah, it wasn't that bad." Monoki's arm had been numbed by the excess of chakra so she barely felt it, "So eh, when does feeling come back into my arm?" she asked as Jinata tied off the bandage.

"Give it an hour-ish…" Takara said.

"So what did you get?" Monoki asked as they left the tattoo place, Takara looked down at her.

"You'll just have to wait and see." Monoki pouted, Takara was planning to stay here for lunch then move on, so they headed back to the sake house. Takara chatted to Akemi and Monoki got on well with Natsumi.

"Why is it Treasure doesn't like Nee-chan?" Monoki asked the girl, little Treasure was curled up next to Monoki and purred as Natsumi petted her.

"I don't… she's nice enough to you and the rest of us, just for some reason it doesn't like Takara-san." Treasure looked up and hissed softly as Takara came into the room, and quickly retreated back outside the door,

"Hey Akemi say's to come get lunch." Takara called, "And leave that demon there."

"okay Nee-chan…" Monoki stopped the cat from following them into the dining room. After a nice lunch Takara thanked Akemi for letting them stay the night.

"Yes, it's no problem dear, just try and visit a little sooner next time."

"I'll try." Takara called back and after dropping in to the tattoo place to say bye to Jinata they headed out of town, heading home.

* * *

It took two days to get back to Konoha from Jinata's village. They dropped their stuff off in the small dorm and got on their shinobi flak jackets and headed up to Hokage tower, on the way up the stairs they ran into Sakura heading down with an armful of paperwork.

"oh hey Hin…Monoki" she grinned as Monoki waved.

"Hey, what's up?" Monoki asked as they grew level and stopped on the stairs.

"Nothing really, Shino, Chouji and Ino are on a mission and should be back later but that's about it, it's gotten a bit quiet now that we've got a few more genin and chuunin, what happened to your arm?" Sakura asked noticing the bandage around her left forearm which was normally covered with her vambrace.

"huh… oh, this, it's not an injury if that's what you're worried about. I'll show you later on yeah." Monoki said and patted her arm to show it wasn't sore.

"Yeah I gotta get these to the hospital, so I'll see you later on" Sakura raised the pile of papers to show she was referring to them than after saying bye headed off down the stairs. The two headed to the top floor and on into Tsunade's office. Takara gave the report of the main things they had uncovered and the encounter of Orochimaru in River, (Takara had told Monoki about this after they split up from Naruto and the pervert).

"Alright then, but I'm sure that didn't take you a week" Tsunade prodded but Takara made a good excuse, Tsunade really didn't need to know that they took a little holiday, but the look Tsunade gave them meant she didn't fully believe them.

"Okay then, how long are you staying in the village this time?" Tsunade asked finishing off her notes.

"A week as usual…" Takara shrugged.

"Okay then…" Takara and Monoki turned to leave, "Takara I want a word with you," the two stopped, "Alone please…" Tsunade added, Takara nodded at Monoki.

"I think I saw Lee and Tenten at the training grounds I'll go meet up with them…" she said and headed off the door.

"Yes Tsunade-sama?" Takara asked not sure what to expect.

"I've took a request in front of the council, as you know a promotion to Sannin requires approval from the Hokage and the council as well as the recommendation from three high class jonin and a current sannin." Takara perked up, she didn't know this, but she was silent and showed no reaction.

"In his case you have my approval so that counts as both Hokage and sannin, and I have spoken to and received recommendations from Asuma, Hebi and Kakashi."

Takara raised her eyebrow, she really didn't think Tsunade was serious when she said she'd look into this back in Suna.

"So?" she said after Tsunade dragged out the silence.

"So, I brought it before the council, and they discussed it for a while. As you know Orochimaru was stripped of that title when he betrayed the village,"

"I don't need reminding of that…" Takara said sharply,

"Oh… sorry, anyway, moving on, the council decided that you may as well take up that forfeited title."

"You serious?" Takara asked.

"when do I joke?" Tsunade said looking over her clasped hands.

"True…" Takara shrugged.

"So the real question is will you accept the position?" Takara thought about this it was a bit of an dilemma for her, if she did accept it she'd be following in the foot steps of her uncle whom she didn't want to be associated with, but then again if she did it would mean she was another step closer to finally beating him, so she didn't know what to do.

* * *

"I was sure I saw them here?" Monoki muttered to herself as she walked down the hill to the training fields. It didn't take long for Gai's praising shouts about the power of youth alerted her to the position of his team. She trotted further down the hill to meet up with Tenten and Lee.

"Hey, miss me?" she said after creeping up on Tenten.

"ERK!" Tenten jumped and gave her a nudge as Monoki sat down beside her. "That wasn't funny…"

"It was for me. So what did I …" Monoki stopped mid sentence as Neji who was sparring with Lee turned to face her. His Leaf head band had been moved to his arm like Shikamaru and his forehead was plain to see, it was clear, the caged bird seal was gone. Tenten seemed to pick up on the question she didn't finish.

"A bit of good news really. Most of the gang are entering in the next chuunin exams. Speaking of I heard you passed along with Sakura, congrats on that." Monoki gave a weak smile even though it was through the mask.

"Hey is Neji different or is it just me? Didn't he used to have a thingie…" she circled her finger around her own forehead.

"Yeah you should hear this one, remember the girl we told you about, Hinata?"

"Neji's cousin?" Monoki tried to make it sound like she didn't remember.

"Yeah, she was the heir to the Hyuuga clan main family right, but since she's disappeared there's no heir left." Monoki's heart plummeted.

"Didn't she have a little sister?"

"Yeah but Hanabi is only a kid she can't be the heir," Monoki hid a sigh of relief, "so what's happening is that because Neji is the prodigy of the Hyuuga clan, he's being adopted into the main family. Once the limit runs out he's going to be the new heir…" Tenten sounded like she didn't even know how she felt about this, it was like choosing between too friends.

"Limit?"

"Yeah, supposedly of the heir is missing without contact for over a year then a new one can be appointed, at least that's what Neji said."

"Really…" Monoki said through gritted teeth.

"Hinata's been missing for about four months now, no one knows where she is…." Tenten sighed.

"Well if it isn't Takara's little student. Where is Takara kid?" Gai appeared and asked.

"Ahhh Tsunade wanted to talk to her about something. She should be about soon enough" Almost on cue Takara did appear sporting a crimson flak jacket and a bit of a sour face, Asuma was walking with her.

"What's that?" he pointed at the jacket, Takara brushed a strand of hair out of her hair.

"It's a sannin flak jacket Gai…" She said flatly.

"Nice!" Monoki called from the ground this was echoed by Lee. Gai's jaw hit the ground and he pointed and spluttered.

"I think the word you're looking for is congratulations." Asuma said smiling at Gai's face.

"How can you be a sannin! I was a jonin before you!" Takara shrugged and looked down at Monoki's questioning look.

"I was too lazy to take it at the same time as him…"

"Yeah until you're brother forced you into it." Asuma said

"True…"Takara nodded, Gai was still sputtering.

"BAKINA! (impossible) how can you be above me when we are drawing on all challenges!?" Gai's eye's where burning.

"Simple Gai, she held back on you…" Asuma said, "But too be honest I knew you where better but I wasn't expecting you to be sannin level." Asuma rolled his ciggy around in his mouth. Gai stopped spluttering.

"THAT'S IT!" Gai pushed Asuma out of the way and made him drop his ciggy. "A one on one fight winner takes the title!"

"You sure about this?" Takara whined she really didn't want to fight right now.

"YES!" Gai wasn't going to let up anytime soon.

"fine…" she muttered and they walked out on to the field.

"Tell you what, let's put a bit of a gamble on this…" Gai said, once they where out of earshot from the others.

"Why do I not like what you're suggesting?" Takara asked. "Fine what is it?"

"Tell you what if I win you go out with me."

"WHAT!?" Takara stopped and looked at him.

"Well why not?"

"Because you never got the guts to fess up and ask yourself… alright then but if I win I get to completely change your image." Takara said, she had been expecting him to ask her out again but not this way.

"What's wrong with my image?" Gai muttered as they took up their positions and go ready to spar.

"Ready?" Takara asked.

"I got a hundred to one on Gai and 20 to one on Takara!" Kiba said.

"Why do you always appear when there's gambling to be done." Monoki asked as she was nearly bowled over by Akamaru who was getting very big.

"Why not?" Kiba answered with a smile, "Now who's up for it?"

"yeah alright," Asuma placed a bet on Takara the rest where mixed then he walked forward to referee the match.

"Alright tai-jutsu only and…. Begin" he chopped his head downward. Takara disappeared and reappeared right in front of Gai, half crouched with arms spread out Gai fell backwards and hit the dirt.

"I'm sorry I blinked and missed it… what happened?" Tenten asked.

"Takara…won?" Monoki was a little confused too. Takara sighed, and looked down at the stunned man on the ground.

"You hurt?"

"Just my pride…" He wheezed she had hit him with her disabling multi-strike, arms, legs, chest and neck. Takara held out her hand and helped him to his feet.

"Now I know you where going to hold me to it if you won so don't think you can get away with this." Takara grinned evilly and he sulked.

"Fine, leave it till after my training session with my team, come to mine around 8 then…"

"I plan to have a bit of fun with this." She poked as he summoned his team and limped away. Asuma was laughing loudly.

"do you glue that thing to your lips?" Takara said, pointing to his ciggy as it bopped about on his lip.

"Funny… but n, and I gotta meet up with Kruenai so… I'll see ya later on." He said and wondered off Kiba stayed where he was with the large dog and leant up against a tree for a nap.

"Hey Monoki you coming to the flat tonight?" he called just before they walked off.

"Why? Is it another movie night?" She asked.

"Nah, just everyone meeting up, up for it?" he called back.

"Yeah okay." Takara called Monoki away to another, empty place in the training grounds.

"I just heard something from Tsunade, I think you should hear it."

"About Neji, I heard" Monoki kicked a stone so hard it embedded itself in a tree.

"not this part, Hiashi pushed the limit down to 6 months instead."

"WHAT!?" Monoki hissed violently,

"You're starting to sound more like a Royki…." Takara tried to lighten the mood but failed, "well put it like this, we have two months, once we rest up for a few days we move to a quiet area and refocus on you're training, we can get a lot done in two months like before. What do you think?" Monoki said nothing for a minute.

"If I leave it and Neji becomes heir that means that I wouldn't have a claim to it anymore, and now that he's been named as the heir apparent that means I will have to fight him now…"

"We still have two months…" Takara tried to push the positive again.

"You're right, will you help me get stronger Nee-chan?" Monoki asked sincerely.

"Of course! But anyway since nether of us have plans for a while, lets look at that branded summon." Takara took Monoki's arm and started to unwrap the bandage. The tattoo turned out perfectly, the detail on the fox was great. The fox was half way up her forearm and was a hand span in size, the fox was mid-stride and looked like it was ready to run off her hand.

"Nice… it turned out well, is it still itchy?" Takara ran her hand over it to check there was no extra scaring.

"No, it's fine now." The first day after she wanted to rip her arm off it was itching so much but Takara stopped her from itching it or it would cause extra scaring and therefore mess it up.

"Alright then, ready to learn ho to do this then?"

"yeah!"

"alright then remember I trained you to focus chakra to any point in your body, yeah, right, now focus some here." Takara drew a circle around the tattoo with her finger and let go of Monoki's arm, "Then nip your thumb and put a bit on the tattoo. Then release the chakra." Monoki nodded and nipped her thumb and put a streak of blood on her arm over the fox. The fox came to life and completed its stride and leapt from her arm onto the ground. The fox snarled, baring pure white sharp teeth , bristled the fur along its spine and whipped its tail with an audible crack.

"Maybe a little more chakra…" Takara sweat dropped as Monoki crouched down to pick up the palm sized fox.

"Yeah…" Monoki held the tiny fox in her hand it was still the same size as it was in its tattoo form.

"So what you gonna call it?" Takara asked stroking the tiny fuzz ball. Monoki pondered on this for a minute and stroked the tiny foxes head.

"Feisu." She said after a while.

"Faith, seems fitting." Takara withdrew her hand as the tiny fox snapped playfully at her.

_End chapter 31_

* * *

_Did we enjoy? Good!_

**Read and review please and thank you!**


	32. Chapter 32: Hinata or Monoki?

_Hey people I just wanna thank all my fans for the support you've given me throughout this story so far, you've been great._

_**And on that note there are a number of different types of fans**_

_Fans: they like the story and add it to story alerts-tons of these_

_Big Fans: The like the story and add it to their favorites list-lots of these_

_Super Fans: they love your work and add you to their favorite author list-good few of these_

_Psycho Fans: They REALLY love all your work and even write their own fanfics of your fanfic (I like these fans they're fun and I have a number of them.)_

_And finally…_

_The Fanboys/girls: these people stalk you and even add you to friend list on other sites they find you on and email you constantly with scary emails of admiration and devotion…_

_**And what's really funny is LMD HAS A FANBOY!!! LOL**_

_And I'm a little scared… but I have a __perfect defense!! (Wields a Baseball bat with 'Anti-fanboy bat' written on it) but I guess good to know that a lot of people like my work that much so Arigato and enjoy! _

* * *

**Hinata or Monoki?**

The branded summon was harder than Hinata thought, it took exact control to get Feisu any bigger, in the end she got the little fox the size of Akamaru when he was a puppy. Takara seemed pleased with the result so Monoki didn't worry about it she would just keep at it.

"Alright then, are you planning any thing tonight?" Takara asked while stretching,

"Nah, I'm just gonna go to the flat and catch up with everyone, hey nice…" Monoki was leaning back on her hands when Takara stretched her t-shirt raised and Monoki saw the tattoo. It was a panther sitting looking forward with a small fox sitting between its front paws.

"You like that?" Takara chuckled and leant back like Monoki.

"Yeah…" Monoki answered she liked the implication of it.

"Now I gotta ask you this, are you going to challenge Neji?" Takara asked, Monoki looked down,

"You know what… I don't know… I want my name back but… I like freedom that comes without it." Monoki pulled at clumps of grass and let them blow away in the wind. "What do you think I should do?"

"I can't answer that for you Kit, you only you can. You have to think it over and think what's best for you or if not for you for your clan, who's the better leader, you told me about a lot of unfair things you wanted to change in the clan, would Neji do those things?"

"I don't know… I guess I gotta think on it"

"Yeah well for now lets just enjoy the day yeah" Takara grunted as she pushed herself off the ground and held out a hand to help Monoki off the ground.

"Yeah, you're right. What are you planning?" Monoki asked as Takara pulled her off the ground.

"I got something to do" Takara grinned to herself, Monoki just shrugged.

"Right I'll see you later then." Monoki trotted off in the direction of the flat and Takara headed to the shops, after stocking up on hair gel and a number of new outfits headed for Gai's apartment. It was earlier than he said but she knew he was there, she knocked on the door and heard a slight shuffle inside. Takara sighed, he was going for the window. Gai landed outside his tiny bathroom window and while wondering why he didn't go out the larger bedroom window started running, only to be stopped in his tracks, frozen.

"You're not getting away with this… a bets a bet…" Takara said standing at the corner, Gai was caught in the pursuing shadow technique.

"Don't be such a baby, come on." Using her shadow she made him walk back along the path to his front door, and then released the jutsu, Gai hung his head and submitted to what more than likely would be torture for him. Once inside Takara dumped the bags on the kitchen table.

"Right… you got hair trimming scissors?" she asked.

"Yeah on the top shelf in the bathroom." He mumbled, the tools that helped him maintain his beautiful locks would be used to destroy them. Takara headed down the hall to the bathroom.

"HA!" she called Gai peaked in the door.

"What!?" Takara turned holding a tube that normally rested on the sink.

"I knew it! You bleach your teeth!"

"What? I like them nice and white… how else would I get the ping?" Gai stepped in and leant on the door frame while Takara who was chuckling turned back to the sink and reached up to the top shelf to get the scissors.

"Hey you got a new tattoo." Gai said, Takara looked over her shoulder at him.

"And just where were you looking to see that?" she grinned as he quickly looked away, blushed and muttered something about going to make tea. When Takara returned to the kitchen the kettle was just beginning to boil and Gai poured the tea while Takara brought out her arsenal, the scissors, hair gel, wax strips, tweezers and matches to burn the spandex later on. Gai handed her a cup of tea and looked at the assortment of stuff of his table. She pulled out one of the chairs and while grinning evilly told him to sit down.

"Lets do the hard bit first shall we?"

"What's that?" he gulped as he sat down.

"The eyebrows, hold still!" Takara had sat her tea cup on the thin strips to heat them up, she lifted the cup and took the seal off the strips and pressed them on to his eyebrows.

"Now… I'm going to be these both at the same time because once I do one you won't let me do the other…" she said while smoothing them down with her thumbs.

"Wait, what?" he whimpered as Takara took a hold of each in either hand.

"Now you will know why kunoichis have a higher pain threshold." In one swift movement she whipped them off.

_RRRRIIIIPPPPPP_

"AAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" the cup on the table shattered.

"OH MY GOD!" Takara rubbed her ears trying to get her hearing back while Gai whimpered in the chair.

"It wasn't that painful!" she shouted at him, he said nothing but rubbed the reddening area where most of his bushy brows used to be as his eyes welled up. Takara binned the used strips which now looked like furry caterpillars and lifted the tweezers. "right now to get the ones I missed."

"NO!" Gai jumped from the chair and backed away as if she was wielding a kunai.

"Alright, alright if you don't want me too…" she went back to the table got another much needed tool from her bags, rope. Gai had put his guard down and Takara turned with the rope.

"What's that for?" he asked, knowing the answer. Next thing Gai knew he was tied to the chair.

"What the hell just happened? How did you…"

"Sannin…" she said getting the tweezers again.

"Point taken…" and although he complained and whined and shook his head Takara finally got the eyebrows plucked into shape. (A/N that sounds familiar somehow…. Cough, other stories, cough).

"See now they're pretty." Takara said, the evil grin had returned, as she untied him. "Now go wet your hair so I can cut it"

"You sure about this?" he asked, again rubbing at his smaller eyebrows, his forehead felt so … exposed… Takara cleaned up the broken cup and spilt tea while he washed his hair. When he came back Takara was in the kitchen with a fresh cup of tea in her hand and another on the table, for him it seemed, her attention was on the tin of hair gel in her hand and she didn't notice him at first. He watched her for a second before she sensed him.

"Hey, ready?" she pointed to the chair and took the towel from his hair and gave it a quick, and rough, rub to get most of the moisture out of it. Then after brushing it out wrapped the towel around his neck and started clipping. Gai watched almost in horror and bits of his hair fell in front of his eyes.

"Aren't you taking a bit much off?" he asked.

"Well at first I was just going to trim it a bit and gel it back but I released that if it gets wet it will just fall back in to a bowl cut and it won't be pretty… so I'm gonna trim it back a good bit then get the hair gel in there." She said brushing off some clippings.

"Er… okay…" he said. It didn't really take her long to trim it all back and dry it, amazed at the fact that Gai even had a hairdryer. After running her fingers through his much shorter hair she smiled to herself.

"Nice…now, let's get a bit of style going…" she opened the hair gel tin with a pop and scooped out a generous amount and slapped it on his head and spiked up his hair even the bit at the back. She stepped back and after wiping the remainder of the hair gel off on the towel she smiled.

"There much better, now go try these on." She threw him a bag and pointed him towards his room while she got a brush and swept up the hair clippings. Gai went into his room with the bag of clothes mumbling a bit about his spandex being fine, as he changed he caught a glimpse of himself in his mirror, his hair was spiked up and his eyebrows where more in proportion to his face.

"Okay so not that bad…" he said turning to get a better look at his hair. Takara had cleaned the kitchen up before he reappeared, she gave a little whistle when came out.

"Now that is much better." He gave a shrug, sure the hair and eyebrows where better but the clothes where just too…loose…

"Are we done?" he asked.

"Yup" Takara smiled to herself and finished her tea.

"Good cuz I need to meet my team, I promised Tenten I'd help with target practice…"

"Okay…"

* * *

Tenten was sitting outside Lee's dojo waiting for Gai, he was late. Neji practicing his stances and Lee was punching his dented log.

"AGH, he's late again…" Tenten whined. She looked up the road again and saw Takara with a bloke she didn't know. He was dressed in jeans and a sleeveless green t-shirt. Tenten couldn't help but think that Takara had great taste in men, this guy was HOT. He had short spiked black hair that framed his handsome face well, his sleeveless t-short showed off his well toned arms and he had a tint of a tan.

"Takara-sama, have you seen Gai-sensei? He's late again…" she trailed off. Something about Takara's companion was familiar and it left an unsettling feeling in her stomach. Maybe it was the chiseled cheekbones…

"Told you!" Takara grinned and said to the bloke beside her, he slumped his shoulders.

"Alright fine, so they didn't know it was me…" he mumbled.

"GAI-SENSEI!?!?!?!" Tenten shirked.

"Yeah?" he looked over at Tenten, who shirked again and ran into Lee's dojo shouting.

"No! it can't be! Gai-sensei cannot be hot! It defies all logic!"

"Hey!" Gai protested, Neji's jaw was also on the ground and Lee was jumping around spouting nonsense about Gai's new youthful look.

"I'll get Tenten…" Takara said and went after the girl. Tenten was in a corner with her arms wrapped around her knees rocking back and forth trying to get the bad images out of her head. The door opened and the traumatized Tenten tensed (A/N say that ten times fast lol), but it was Takara, who was trying to suppress laughter with little success.

"You alright?" Tenten shook her head violently and whimpered. "That was a bit of a shock then, so tell me did I do a good job on the make over?"

"You did this to him?" Tenten was still rocking in the corner.

"It was a bet, I won, still I know you're glad to see the back of that spandex" Takara shuddered, she hated that suit.

"Well yeah but its Gai. Gai shouldn't be… you know!" she could bring herself to use 'Gai' and 'hot' in the same sentence.

"Give it a chance yeah?" Takara offered a hand to the girl

"Myeh…" Tenten stopped rocking and took the hand so Takara could pull her off the ground.

"How about I work with you today? How's your Dancing Blades going?"

Tenten worked with Takara for that training session while Gai took the boys. After all how often does a sannin offer to train you, thought Tenten, and was beginning to see why Monoki was so good and couldn't help but feel a little jealous. After the training session (and when Tenten could look at Gai without shuddering) Takara stretched and said to Gai.

"I'm starving, wanna go get something to eat?" Gai agreed, but his face fell as she turned to his team. "What about you guys?" Behind her Gai was waving his hands and shaking his head. Neji rolled his eyes and said no, Tenten grinned and politely turn down the offer, but Lee not catching the point agreed, but Tenten grabbed Lee in a headlock.

"But Lee you promised to help me with that thing!"

"What thinGRK" Tenten tightened her grip.

"You promised to help her build a new target" Neji interjected as he walked up beside them, Tenten was stunned for a second, when does Neji help out Gai-sensei?

"You sure?" Takara asked again, behind her Gai clenched his fist in triumph but quickly changed to running his hand through his gelled hair as she turned back to him.

"Guess it's just us Gai, come on, I fancy some dango." Takara headed down the path and a grinning Gai followed. Tenten smiled at them walking away but was interrupted when a purple faced Lee thumped her arm.

"Huh? Oh!" she released her grip and Lee feel to the ground gasping for air. "Anyway it's not like you to help out anyone" Tenten said to Neji, he looked away

"It gets him out of our hair… don't look to much into it." Tenten chuckled as he avoided the question.

"I think a few people are going to meet up at the flat, coming Lee?" he wheezed an affirmative from the ground. "okay then, Neji?" Neji shrugged, he had never been to the flat but Tenten was determined to get him there at some stage. "Ah come on… it's not like you don't know anyone there." Tenten took his hand and tried to pull him along with her, Neji shook her hand off.

"Fine if it will make you drop it." He walked ahead so neither Lee or Tenten would see the redness in his cheeks.

* * *

Meanwhile already at the flat Chouji, Ino and Shino had returned from their mission and where kicking back with everyone else. Akamaru perked up his ears as there was a rattle at the door.

"The door sticks give it a kick!" shouted Kiba. With a bang the door opened and Monoki pulled the key out of the lock.

"Since when does the door stick?" she asked after giving it a kick to close it as well and walking into the living room.

"Since Lee dented the hinges…" Chouji answered. Monoki sat on the right hand sofa next to Kiba who was still a little shy around her. Monoki noted the apartment hadn't changed at all expect for one thing was added, a new picture was on the wall, of her and Takara, the photo Ino had taken before they left the last time.

"I'm not even going to ask what happened… So anything happen while I was away?" Monoki asked,

"Not really we're all being entered in the next chuunin exams, bar Shika and Sakura." Said Ino, Shikamaru next to her pouted at his nickname.

"Cool…" Monoki said.

"Hopefully we'll do as well as you," Kiba said poking at her flak jacket. Monoki gave a quiet chuckle and playfully bated his hand away, and before anyone could notice the blush that formed on his cheeks they where all distracted at loud cursing at the door.

"Give it a kick Tenten!" Ino shouted out the hall. A few minutes later Tenten had wrestled the door open and her and Lee came on in followed by Neji.

"Hey look, he's decided to join us!" Kiba teased. At this Monoki looked over to see who it was, Neji paused in the doorway and the two stared for a moment. Tenten pulled Neji into the room and thankfully to the other side of the room. Tenten took her usual beanbag chair, Lee said on the arm of one of the sofas and Neji just stood next to the window.

"Where were you guys?" Ino asked.

"Gai-sensei was late to training. You should see him!" Tenten said and told everyone about how Takara had gave him a complete work over. "Your sensei is so cool Monoki. I mean Gai-sensei keeps going on about youth and pretends he's still a teenager but Takara-sama (A/N They call her 'sama' now cuz she's a sannin, a much higher rank and deserving of greater respect) is different, it's like she still 'is' young. You know? It's no wonder you passed the exams with no problem, with a sannin training you and all."

"Sannin?" Ino asked.

"Didn't you hear? Takara-sama was promoted to Sannin" Kiba told her.

"EHHH!! Why don't you tell me these things when I come back from a mission!!" Ino whined to Sakura, who shrugged and Ino pouted, "You could have at least told me…" she nudged her boyfriend.

"I didn't think you'd be interested…" was his excuse. The conversation marched on to the on coming exams and how both team 10 and team 8 where getting random gennin from the last years class whose team had lost a member so the two left behind where spilt into their teams for the exams, but the two where stuck up and annoying none of the group really liked them.

"Yeah I can see why the other guy quit their team, I wanted to punch the guy myself…" muttered Kiba, Shino agreed.

"We would have fared much better if we had our old team back…" he said. Monoki however wasn't listening to this she was aware that Neji, who was standing cross armed at the window was staring at her, she was watching him from the corner of her eye.

"Is it just me or it the air getting a little heavy in here?" Tenten asked.

"Yeah it's a little uncomfortable" Chouji uttered into his rice cake. Chouji suggested opening a window to let some fresh air in. But no one seemed to notice the lightening bolts flashing between Monoki and Neji. Neji was staring at her full on but Monoki's head was turned towards Kiba and her glasses hid where her eyes where looking.

_What's this weird feeling a get when I'm around her, it's almost like she's looking right through me… no, I must be imagining it, Tenten must be right, it's just because I don't know her yet._

Monoki turned to face him square on and the feeling of unease in him rose to fever pitch, the girls eyebrows knitted together in a scowl, he didn't need to see the rest of her face to know she was glaring at him with marked dislike.

_Or not…_ Neji finally admitted the truth this masked girl scared him, he had to get out of here.

"As interesting as this is I have to get back, I'll see you later." The last bit was addressed to his two team mates and he uncrossed his arms and walked out to everyone calling their byes. He could feel Monoki's eyes boring into his back as he walked to the door and tugged on it to wrestle it free from its tight fit in the door frame. Even after he closed the door behind him he still felt like she was watching him.

"What a kill joy…" Kiba said as the door closed. "So anyway did you do anything interesting while running about the countryside?" Kiba asked Monoki.

"Nothing really, but I did meet this guy…" Ino perked up at the mention of a guy and Kiba's smile wavered. Monoki was pulling out her rusty brown wallet with the fuzzy chibi fox on it and pulled out a photo.

"I think you guys might know him" and she handed the photo around, it was the one with her (masked of course), Naruto, Takara and Jiraiya.

"Hey, that's Naruto, where'd you meet him?" Kiba asked as he passed around the photo.

"In river on the way back into Fire, Jiraiya-sama and Nee-chan had a bit of a…well a fight." Monoki chuckled.

"A fight?" Chouji said.

"We stopped at a hot spring and Nee-chan caught him trying to peek, the after math wasn't pretty."

"Yeah, I know what he's like, a pervert." Sakura said remembering what he was like when her and Naruto went with him to rice.

"Yeah but that Naruto guys not bad…" Monoki continued. The photo was passed around and they chatted on and eventually the PS2 was turned on and an argument ensued on which game to play. Monoki went to the small kitchen, which was now divided from the living room by a bead curtain, to get herself a soda from the fridge.

"Hey, here's you're photo back" Sakura came in behind her holding up the picture.

"Oh thanks…" Monoki put down her drink can and opened up her wallet to slide the photo back in.

"Hey what's this?" Sakura caught the edge of another photo and pulled it out, turned out it was two photos. One was of Kiba, Naruto and Hinata on their last mission with the carnival and the other was the mushy one of Hinata and Naruto.

"HEY!" Monoki snapped the photos back but Sakura managed to keep the mush one.

"What's this?" Sakura crooned and waved the photo.

"Give it!" Monoki swiped again, this time she got it. "Don't do that… the other's might see it…" Monoki pouted.

"Aw I was just having a bit of fun." Sakura said as Monoki put the two revealing photos behind the group shot in her wallets photo window. "So when did you and Naruto get together?" Sakura smiled, it was about time they did too.

"Two weeks ago, Nee-chan took me to a spa village to recover from my wound and we meet up there and well…you know… 'got together'" Sakura grinned as the visible skin above her mask began to steadily turn red.

"At least you don't feint around him any more, that was really annoying." She said and swiped Monoki's unopened can of soda.

"Yeah well at least I didn't stalk the guy I liked…" Monoki fired back and got a new can from the fridge. Sakura was about to respond when there was a commotion in the living room.

"GIVE IT BACK!" it was Tenten. The two girls headed back into the living room to see Lee, Kiba and Chouji tossing around a games case, Guitar Hero.

"No, if we let you put it on we'll never get a go" Lee said and tossed it to Kiba, it sailed over his head and he jumped back to get it, tripped over Akamaru and banged into Monoki, her unopened can dropped to the floor as she grabbed Kiba, as he fell he caught Monoki's glasses on his sleeve and they where pulled from her face and Monoki clenched her eyes tightly closed.

"Sorry Monoki!" Kiba called as he swept up the game case and continued the game of keep away. Monoki dropped to her knees and ran her hand along the ground trying to find her glasses with the other hand covering her eyes.

"What the?" the attention of the room turned to Monoki searching the floor blindly.

"Eh, Monoki what are you doing?" Kiba asked crouching down to look at her in the face, her eyes where open slightly in a bid to find her glasses. "eh? OWWWW!"

"BAKA!" Sakura had hit him on the head and forced him away from Monoki, then pressed her glasses into her hand. "Her eyes are photosensitive!" Sakura said and helped Monoki turn the glasses around and get them back on her face.

"Photo-what?" Chouji asked, picking the dazed Kiba from the ground.

"It means her eyes are sensitive to light." Sakura said. "Bright light would be damaging to your eyes, right Monoki?"

"Yeah…" Monoki pressed the glasses firmly to her face and retrieved the dropped can.

"How you know that?" Ino asked.

"When she nearly broke my examination torch when I was checking to her if she had a concussion during the second part of the exam" (A/N seeing how quickly the eyes react to light is one way to check)

"You blinded me in the left eye for a week!" Monoki shot back, Sakura had made a good excuse for her and she was going to go with it. "I'm lucky I got my sight back at all."

"I said I was sorry…" Sakura pouted, and gave Monoki a sneaky smile, this was a good cover.

"So anyway what game are we playing?" Monoki changed the subject, Tenten kicked Lee and got the GH game off him.

"THIS ONE!!"

* * *

Gai reddened as yet another woman at the dango restaurant waved at him.

"You can't get the good stuff outside the village" Takara said before chomping into her favorite food. Gai played with the sticks his own dango had come on, poking his last dango ball around the plate, he was looking anywhere except Takara.

"You know Gai…" Takara started, and after taking a sip of her tea continued, "if you had just asked out right I would have said yes."

"Asked what?" he accidentally pushed the dango ball off his plate, he picked it up before it rolled off the table and placed it back on the plate.

"Ask me out… Don't think I didn't know you still had feelings for me, that and the fact you where waving your arms to your team earlier was a bit of a give away…" her smile grew wider as Gai turned bright red.

"I knew it…" Takara continued to grin as she finished her dango. "Thanks for the dango Gai," she said and gave his shoulder an affectionate squeeze as she walked past. Gai sat for a moment, why was he still sitting there? Gai quickly got up and darted out the door looking for Takara, he looked up and down the street for her crimson flak jacket but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Shit! I blew it!" he scolded himself.

"I wouldn't say that…." Gai spun around Takara was leaning against the wall next to the door of the shop, he'd run right past her. He rubbed his head and grinned,

"So, ano, what you wanna do now?" he asked as Takara walked up to him

"Let's go get a cup o' tea, my place is closer, come on." She sat her hand on his shoulder and they walked down the street, together.

* * *

"Tenten, I swear no matter now much you curse and fight, we're not letting you back on that game!" Kiba shouted as he, Chouji and Monoki held her back while Shikamaru turned off the PlayStation2.

"ICHI, ICHI, ICHI!!" (no fair) once it was off Tenten stopped fighting and slumped in a huff. Monoki chuckled as Shikamaru put on Soul Caliber 3 instead. As they played Monoki began to feel a bit hungry,

"I'm going to go see if Nee-chan got anything planed for dinner, if not I'll be back" she told Sakura, then called 'ja ne' to the others and after struggling with the dodgy door she left.

"Wonder if Nee-chan already got something to eat? Guess I'll check the dorm first…" Monoki headed on back to the dorm. As she came in she thought something was a bit off, why was it so dark? The curtains where closed, Takara's flak jacket was on the floor, Monoki picked it up and hung it on the coat stand, then walked on down the hall into the small dorm living room. She rounded the corner and saw Takara and Gai on the sofa,

"AGHHH!" Monoki shouted, covered her eyes and retreated down the hall. Takara and Gai looked over the back of the sofa.

"shit…" Takara jumped over and went after her and Gai paused the DVD (A/N well what where you thinking you dirty minded people lol)

"Nee-chan!!! You know I wanted to see that film! You're trying to spoil it on me!" Monoki whined as Gai flicked on the light.

"Will you calm down there was no need to over react like that… if you want I'll leave the DVD here for you to watch later on." Takara gave her hair a ruffle, a little rougher than was needed.

"So what's up anyway I thought you were gonna stay at the flat 'til later on tonight?"

"I came to see if you had anything planned for dinner or am I feeding myself?" Monoki asked

"I've already had something to eat, you wanna get ramen or something?" Takara said scratching her head.

"Yeah okay, but.."

"What?" Monoki pulled Takara down to whisper.

"Is that really Gai?" Monoki pointed to Gai in the kitchen, he was watching a bag of microwaveable popcorn spin around in the microwave, he was using the short break to get some snacks.

"Hee, good aren't I?" Takara said in a smug voice.

"Yeah but… what's he doing here?" Monoki gave Takara the raised eyebrow look.

"What? A couple of friends can't watch a movie?" Takara snorted, Monoki thought for a second.

_Nee-chan and Gai… nah… _and she shrugged.

"I'm gonna get some ramen then, I might stay at the flat till late"

"Okay… just don't get into trouble and be careful." Takara added.

"er… yeah, I'm always careful…heehee…" Monoki rubbed the back of her head.

_Ping!_

"Popcorns ready!" Gai called and jumped back on the sofa waiting for Takara to watch the rest of the film.

"Do not press play until I'm gone!" Monoki warned.

"Well you better hurry…"Takara teased hovering her finger over the play button on the remote.

"DON'T!" Monoki backed up to the door, "Wait 'til I'm gone!" Monoki darted out the door and Takara chuckled and flicked off the light again before sitting next to Gai on the small two seater sofa. The popcorn was on the small coffee table in front of them.

"Right, before we start," she looked up at him, "You wanna drink?" Gai looked down at her and meet her eye.

"Ano… no… I'm okay…" he said, but didn't look away

"Should we watch the rest of the film?" Takara asked.

"We should…" he said, but neither looked back at the screen. Gai took his chance and leant forward, pressing his lips onto hers. She didn't pull away as he expected but slipped her hand up the side of his face, around to the back of his neck and pulled him closer.

* * *

"Oi, up!" Takara called, Monoki opened one eye in a glare,

"Nee-chaaannn, it's still early" she moaned.

"It's ten in the morning… come on we've gotten lazy, no more late mornings." Takara said sternly, "we're leaving today, I want us to get a jump start on your training again, remember we have a time limit." Monoki jumped out of the bed,

"Alright, alright I'm up!" she was eager to get the training started again.

"We'll be leaving soon, so get your stuff together."

"Hai!" Monoki threw off the covers and started to get dressed. Takara had most of their stuff in the travel packs already so all Monoki had to do was gather the clothes she wore the day before and PJs. Takara and Monoki put on their flak jackets, shouldered their packs and headed out the door, Takara locked it behind them.

"Leaving so soon, Takara-sama?"

Not you too, Kakashi…" Takara moaned as he fell into step beside them.

"Yes well you are Sannin now so … 'Sama'" He said in a cutesy voice, a vein throbbed on Takara's forehead.

"Why must you tease me?" she asked through gritted teeth and her eyebrow twitched.

"Why not… it's fun…" He said back.

"Don't make me steal your mask again!" she threatened with a clenched fist.

"Aw come now, ease up abit…" Kakashi said, Monoki noticed he put an arms length between them, "So you're leaving through the east gate this time, going to drop in to your village for a bit?"

"May as well… I haven't in a while, wonder how they'll react though" she said.

"Who knows? By the way I saw Gai this morning, was that your doing?"

"Yup, worked out quite well didn't it? Now don't you have a new book to read or something?" Takara said.

"Well I do, but I thought seeing off an old friend would be a little more important."

"Stop lying you just came to tease me…"

"Well that's not entirely true…" Kakashi said as they reached the eastern gate.

"You're not going without saying bye to me are you?" Gai called from behind, Kakashi and Monoki still found it very hard to recognize the new Gai. Takara stopped walking and smiled.

"Just waiting for you to catch up." She said. Gai fell into step next to them and they continued on to the gate.

"So how long this time?" Gai asked.

"About two months, we're not going that far really. Only to the eastern border."

"The canyon?" Kakashi asked.

"Yup." Was all Takara said. The canyon was a deep gorge, almost impossible to scale and it was a great place to get some serious training done, without interruption, every Jonin knew about that place, it was where the fourth trained before he became the Hokage. They came to gate and Kakashi slowed his pace and stopped, Gai walked a little further with them.

"Right, see ya when I see ya then." Takara said to her friends.

"Don't be gone too long his time" Gai said almost in a huff.

"Don't you worry about it." Takara said with a playful smile, "I'll be back sooner than ya think" and she kissed him.

"Bye Gai" she said after breaking off, Gai smiled and gave a bit of a chuckle. "Let's go Kit." Takara said walking out the gate leaving a very stunned Kakashi and Monoki. Both jaws were nearly on the ground, Monoki pointed dumbly from Gai to Takara and back again.

"Kit, come on!" Takara called and Monoki, still shocked, trotted after her.

"What was that about?" Monoki asked when she could speak again.

"What you're the only one allowed a love life?" Takara said, a little defensively.

"Well no, but… Gai?" she continued.

"Oh yeah like Naruto is perfect in the looks department." Argument shot down Monoki backed off, Takara had her cornered there, she loved Naruto for his personality and determination, she guess Gai must have similar qualities it Takara had an interest, but she tried to not think of it.

"I've never left the village by this gate before…" Monoki mused to herself.

"Not surprising, this road only leads to the clan villages in the hills, after that we get to climb over the mountain, a wee bit rough going but it's the quickest way to get were we're going."

"Humh… I've heard of this village up here, like the Hyuuga compound but… bigger?"

"You could say that but, there's two villages up there, the Royki village," she pointed to the north face of the valley to a cluster of houses, "And the Buki-haji" She pointed to another clutch of houses across the valley, both connected by a bridge spanning the V of the valley.

"Weapon holders?"

"Well yeah, they're not so much a clan as a group of families with a common skill, weapon smiting and they settled together on the hill side, and well… intermingled… so they may as well be a clan now since they united under a single name."

"And the Roykis?"

"We've been on that hillside for as long as Konohua, up there is the perfect conditions to grow herbs needed for most anti-venoms, and anti-toxins the medics use, The Royki's tend the herbs and also farms snakes for their venom, we produce the majority of the poisons used by the Leaf ninja" she said sounding proud of her clan. They headed up the curving path into the main Buki-haji village, it was a lot bigger than it looked from down in the V of the valley. The village was pretty well maintained it could have been another district of the main village, the streets where pretty full too. People where dotted around the place, as well as a number of forges, the name Buki-haji wasn't for nothing. The Royki's where easy to spot in the crowd, no matter how little Royki blood they had their hair was jet black, pointed noses and chins, serpentine shaped eyes and grey irises, Monoki could have sworn she saw Takara in the crowd if she wasn't standing beside her, it reminded her slight of the repetitive looks of the Hyuugas. The other clan was much more varied in their physical features but they all seemed to have the same fixation on weapons, it made Monoki think of a certain bun hair kunoichi she knew, maybe this is was her long lost family. Every ninja up here bore visible, well crafted weapons, mostly swords, so Takara with her katana and Monoki with her twin swords weren't so out of place. Monoki couldn't help but notice that Takara was getting a few cold stares from a few of the Royki's walking the streets and once they crossed the bridge into the main Royki area, it was a little strange some people gave her a wave, others glared, one older, white haired woman openly hissed at her, Takara did nothing against this, she just walked on ignoring her.

"What was that about?" Monoki asked.

"I'll explain later on, come on, we're nearly there." Takara walked into the courtyard of a large house.

"An intruder! Die!" came a shout, and a kunai darted from a corner and hit Takara on the stomach and a small figure ran forward and jumped on her pack, wielding another plastic kunai. Takara was laughing as she swiped the small boy off her back and dropped her pack. She held the boy, who looked about nine, around the midsection and rubbed her knuckles across his head.

"OW OW OW OW I submit!!" the small boy cried.

"Good! Where's your daddy Arata?" she asked scooping up his plastic kunai toys.

"Out, Mummy's home though…" he said rubbing his back hair into place.

"Aye… where?" Takara asked Arata.

"Dunno, the kitchen…" he said.

"Alright thanks kid, how you doing on your ninja training?" she smiled.

"Daddy says I'm doing great auntie!" he proclaimed happily Takara beamed at him.

"Alright then, right I'm gonna go talk to your mum so off ya go yeah?"

"Okay" he took his plastic kunai from Takara and trotted around the side of the house.

"Auntie?" Monoki asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What? He's my nephew, this is my brothers house." She shrugged and lifted her pack again and headed in the house. She sat her back in a cubbie just in the main door and put Monoki's beside it, and after slipping off their shoes went inside.

"Masami?" Takara called and poked her head into a kitchen.

"Takara, what are you doing here?" the brown hair woman laughed coming around the table to her, they hugged. "I haven't seen you in ages. Come on I'll make some tea" she ushered Takara and Monoki into the kitchen and boiled the kettle.

"So whose this?" Masami asked as she poured the tea.

"This is my apprentice, Monoki. So where's Hebi?" Takara asked.

"Oh he's at the green houses, a bunch of greenfly is damaging the herbs, he'll be back later on, but before he does there's some one you should meet." She grinned.

"Who?"

"Wait here." Masami said and hurried out of the room.

"Is she a Royki too?" Monoki asked.

"huh, no, Masami is from the Buki-haji she married Hebi about ten years ago." A quiet moan brought Takara's attention back to the door. Masami came in cradling a groggy baby.

"Oh my god! Masami! Congratulations!" Takara said as Masami handed her the large baby, "How old is she?" Takara asked cradling the black haired baby girl.

"18 months."

"Hebi sends word about deaths but he doesn't tell me about his new baby!"

"It's Hebi…" Masami shrugged. Monoki and Takara doted over the baby for a while before she got fussy and Masami put her back to bed. Not long after a dark haired man came in, with a horribly scarred neck and missing two fingers on his right hand.

"Hey Hebi miss me?" Takara grinned, the man glomped his younger sister and made her fall back nearly knocking over the table.

"You big kid gettoff!" she called.

"Sorry… how ya been? And is this the kid I've been hearing about."

"I'm fine and yes this is Monoki…" Monoki waved, "Hebi, there's something I should tell you…"

"What? You got rid of your twisted sense of humor?" he said taking his place beside his wife.

"Funny, but no…Hebi remember that recommendation you put forward years ago for me…"

"Yeah… why?" Takara got serious now.

"I got it… I'm the new Sannin…" Hebi's face fell.

"What?"

"I knew you'd say that…I don't know how the rest of the clan will take this, they're already split on how to react to me, Gira-san hissed at me in the street. I think the clan would be better of hearing it from you than rumors from the main village."

"You're right… I should tell the elders about this before we decide what to do, but anyway congrats…" he smiled. "How long you gonna stay?"

"Not long really, I just dropped by to let you know about that and we'll be moving on in a bit."

"At least stay for dinner." Masami offered. "And tell us about some of your trips"

"No, I won't impose, we really should move on."

"Nope, you've come home so your getting a home cooked meal so sit." Hebi pushed down on her shoulders to keep her in her seat.

"Always the bossy big brother, but if you insist" Takara brushed off her brothers hands. She chatted away with her brother and sister-in-law, and even helped with the dinner. Just before it was ready Monoki was sent to fetch Arata.

"Okay"

"He's more than likely out back in the garden." Hebi called. He was right, Monoki got lost a few times in the huge clan leaders house but found her way out back, and the young boy had switched to real kunai and was practicing his throwing. Monoki told him that he was being called for dinner.

While they ate the adults talked about random things while Monoki was annoyed by Arata flicking peas at her. After the meal Arata ran off again, Monoki and Takara helped clear up and moved into a large entertaining room, in the middle of the floor was sunk down and was bordered with very cussie seats, stretched out on one side was a large snake that raised its head to glance at them as they came in and curled into a tighter ball.

"Hey Sammy…" Takara sat beside the snake and stoked its large scaly head. Monoki stayed well away from it, the snake was a family pet. They chatted on for another while on nothing really until Takara said they really had to get going again she hugged her brother and sister-in-law then gathered her bags and in the court yard she gave one of her sharp whistles and Arata came running to give his auntie a good bye hug. Takara waved to her brother's family and headed out the gate with Hinata trotting behind her and led the way to a path that ran along the verge of the valley to the east.

"Right let's get going it's a two day walk to the place I got planned for ya."

"Nee-chan, why are those people glaring at you?" Monoki was looking over her shoulder back to the village a few people where making sure she was leaving.

"It's a bit complex… Remember I told you that Orochimaru is my uncle, he used to train me directly and when he defected he killed my father in the process and tried to kill me, but I survived and some of the clan think that I was in on it and am still loyal to Orochimaru" she spat with distaste, "The rest of the village knows I was just another one of his pawns but the clan is split over it. It caused so many problems I moved down to the main village just to let the clan have some peace. What's worse is I look like him."

"What?"

"Have you ever seen a picture of Orochimaru?" Takara asked.

"No…" Monoki replied, Naruto descried him once, but 'snake dude' maybe wasn't the best idea of him. Takara dug out an ANBU bingo book from her bag and handed it to Monoki to browse in. Monoki flipped through the pages, skipping past Itachi and on to Orochimaru, Monoki held up the book to compare and was shocked at the likeness, same sharp pointed nose and chin and her eyes where similar even the way her hair fell across her face as it escaped from the hair tie, the only marked difference was Takara's tanned skin and the scar over the right eye.

"Wow…" Monoki said.

"Yeah… aright, so once we get to this place we are really going to get back into your training, we've slacked off after the exams." Takara said, changing the subject. Monoki agreed and they continued on along the path.

That night they began up their sparring sessions again and Monoki wanted to try out a new technique she had been developing, although… she didn't tell Takara that. During the fight Monoki concentrated chakra to her hand with such intensity her hand glowed with a dull white light, with her hand in this state she gave Takara a palm strike on the stomach. Takara staggered back and held out her t-shirt, Monoki's hand print was scorched onto the top.

"What was that!?" she asked.

"shit… it was a move I was working on, but it didn't work…" Monoki crossed her arms trying to think what went wrong.

"What was it meant to do?"

"Flood your chakra pathways with a foreign chakra and disable them, and through that knocking you out…"

"Thanks for the warning…"

"sorry…."

"Er… Monoki…"

"what?"

"It … works…" with that Takara fell backwards.

"Yes!" Monoki clutched her fists in victory. "I did it Nee-chan, I made my own Jutsu!……… Nee-chan?...shit…"

It took about an hour for Takara to come around from that but when she did, and after punching Monoki for not warning her, praised her for her new move.

"So what you gonna call it" Takara asked spooning out their dinner which Monoki cooked while she was out cold. Monoki thought for a moment, while rubbing her sore arm.

"Paralyzing Palm"

"I think that will work" Takara chuckled, as she tried to get feeling back into her lower body.

* * *

Back in Konoha Sakura was muttering angrily as she shifted through a mountain of paper work. Tsunade was dealing with more important matters so Sakura was stuck doing the daily reports, the boring stuff. The status of the Nara's sick foals, the standardized test results from the academy, clan affairs. It was all in here and it was all snore inducing, but she had to trawl through it and note down the 'important stuff' and Sakura used to wonder why Shizune spent so much time at the hospital… not any more, she was hiding. She flicked through clan reports, nothing really that interesting, she read through the next in the pile, something about moving up a ceremony…

_Wait? What clan is this?_

Sakura flicked over the scroll, it bore the Hyuuga crest. So she opened it again and read the report in more detail. Hiashi had leant on the council to bring forward the adoption of Neji, it was A LOT closer now and Hinata had left that morning.

"KUSO!!" Sakura grabbed the report and darted out of the small office down the hall and ran into Tsunade's office. Tsunade was assigning academy duty to Shikamaru.

"What's this about!" she snapped.

"I realllyyy think you should see this" Sakura waved the report.

"Wait outside" Tsunade told Shikamaru he grumbled but went out the door. Sakura explained what she found to the Hokage. Tsunade reread the report a few times before cursing loudly.

"That man is a fool! We have to get word to Hinata and Takara about this. Do you know where they went?"

"No… but I saw Takara talking to Gai and Kakashi just before they left, they might know." Sakura said quickly.

"Right, NARA, GET IN HERE!" Tsunade called. Shikamaru walked in his usual lazy self.

"Yeah?"

"I've got a more urgent mission for you, I need you to find either Kakashi or Gai and find out where Takara and Monoki went, then I need you to deliver this. It is extremely important Nara, now get a move on!" Tsunade threw and badly sealed scroll she had just written and pointed out the door.

"What's so important that…"

"NOW NARA!" Shikamaru bolted out the door with uncharacteristic speed.

"Man… why do I always get stuck with missions like this?" he said as he searched for Kakashi's or Gai's chakra, Gai's was the nearest in the training ground. After a very brief conversation he found out where the women where headed and ran off in that direction. At full speed it took him a day and a half to get to the canyon, at the top he lent on his knees to catch his breath.

"Now how do I find them this place it huge…" he breathed heavily for a minute trying to think of his next course of action. A deep rumble sounded from in the canyon and the ground shook, Shikamaru stumbled and dropped the scroll, its poor seal broke and it flapped open. Shikamaru scooped up the scroll as he watched a dust cloud rise from further down the canyon, as he re-rolled the scroll he spotted a few familiar words, 'Hyuuga' 'sooner' 'hurry' he paid it no attention and shoved the scroll into his pocket and ran towards the dust cloud. It was easier to go down to the bottom of the canyon and run along the base. As he got closer he felt the raised chakra levels of the two women, and the sound of steel on steel was making him wonder what the hell they where doing. He rounded a large rock to see them engaged in a full on fight, Monoki's sword shorts and Takara's katana were nothing but blurs as they attacked each other. Shikamaru watched wondering how the hell he was going to get their attention with out them attacking him by mistake. He was too busy watching the two fight to notice the three foot fox darting at him.

"AAGGGHHH!!!"

"What the….." they stopped and looked over to see Shikamaru on his back trying to ward off Feisu who was standing on his chest.

"What the hell is this! Get it off me! This thing is huge!" he tried to push the fox off.

"Feisu, come here!" Monoki called the fox trotted of the shocked Chuunin and back to Monoki, and back to tattoo form on her arm, she had been training to keep the fox for an extended time while focusing on another thing, ie fighting.

"What are you doing here Nara?" Takara asked as she pulled him off the ground. He brushed the dirt off.

"Tsunade-sama sent me with this apparently it's important." He handed over the scroll. Takara unrolled it and read through it quickly.

"You should read this…" she handed the letter to Monoki, who scowled at the news.

"well, what are you gonna do?" Takara asked. Monoki was silent.

"You know, a lie told enough times becomes truth…Hinata." Shikamaru said shoving his hands in his pockets. Takara did a double take at the boy, Hinata let out a weak chuckle and pulled off her mask and glasses.

"When'd you figure it out?" she asked.

"Honestly, from the start I had my suspicions. But this here confirmed it for me."

"Suspicions?" Monoki asked.

"Well, when I first met you, or well you know, Monoki, you kept playing with your mask as if it was new and you weren't used to it, then there was the cloud watching comment. The Chuunin exams too, the goggles you wore at the finals to hide the veins on your face and how you glared at Hiashi the whole way through."

"Ah… okay then…" Hinata said.

"Well, its time, are you Monoki or Hinata?" Takara asked, Hinata took and deep breath.

"Hinata" Takara smiled and Shikamaru smirked.

"Wait it's the day after tomorrow we'd better get moving now if you going to make it in time." Shikamaru pointed out.

"Don't worry we'll get there." Takara said and strolled over to the bags and threw Monoki a water bottle and they sat down to catch their breath after the training session.

"But it took me a day and a half to run here…" he pointed out.

"Nara, relax… we'll get there in time." Takara said again, but the boy started getting a little annoying after half an hour Takara instructed Monoki to gather the camp together. They packed up the tents and the rest of their things.

"If we're gonna make it I really think…"

"Nara please…" Takara said, and nipped her finger and carried out a number of hand signs and summoned Pusa, the large green dragon.

"Takara-san, long time no see, how can I help?" the green asked and Shikamaru nearly wet himself at the appearance of the large dragon.

"Hey Pusa, can you give us a lift?" Takara asked.

"Three? No problem, where to?" Pusa lowered herself down to lie on the ground.

"To Konoha…" Takara said and stepped up on the dragon behind its head, Monoki motioned for Shikamaru to get on behind her and she stepped up behind him.

"Shikamaru, you may wanna sit down…" Monoki said.

"Why?" he asked, and he wobbled as Pusa stood again. "okay maybe your right." He lowered himself down to straddle the dragon.

"Let's go then!" Pusa grinned and propelled herself forward along the bottom of the canyon, Shikamaru shouted in surprise and leant forward to wrap his arms around the dragon. Monoki and Takara let out loud whoops as Pusa shot up from ground level, out of the canyon and into the sky. The women, both standing surfer style, where enjoying this but Shikamaru swore he would never laugh at Sakura for saying riding the dragon was the scariest thing ever again. Most of the way his eyes where jammed closed so he had no idea how long they flying or where they were until Takara shouted over the wind.

"Kitsune! Time to get the glasses back on!"

"Right!" She shouted back, Shikamaru chanced opening his eyes and saw they where almost directly over the village. Pusa started a sharp descent and scared Shikamaru as the ground rushed towards them. Pusa circled the Hokage tower and landed on the roof, the women jumped off and Shikamaru just kinda fell off and staggered away from the dragon.

"Thanks Pusa-san!" Hinata said and bowed to the dragon, Takara done the same, the dragon smiled and nodded back before biding them farewell and disappearing. It was dark, and late Tsunade was more than likely asleep so the report in could be left until the morning. Hinata and Takara said night to the shaken Shikamaru and headed to the dorm.

"Did the letter say when this thing is tomorrow?" Takara asked as she fumbled in the dark with the front door keys.

"Yeah, noon tomorrow…" Hinata said, she was a little distracted but Takara said nothing about it.

"Come on Kit, get some sleep…" Hinata nodded and shuffled off into the bed room.

* * *

The day had finally come, Neji looked at himself in the full length mirror, he was dressed in formal Hyuuga robes, his long hair was combed out straight down his back. Neji ran his fingers over his forehead again, he'd been freed from the Caged Bird Seal by Hiashi on the day he was told about the adoption. That whole day he was ecstatic, he was free. He no longer worried about his future, it was finally his to chose. His good mood continued until he came to his room that night, he sat on his bed and pulled off his top and threw it across the room into the washing basket next to his desk but something on his desk caught his eye. A picture, one of only two in the main families house. One of Hinata smiling shyly, with a faint blush on her cheeks. The only other was in Hanabi's room. As the picture stared across the room he began to feel guilty, this was great for him, but for him to get it, his little cousin had to die. What was worse was Lee asked him the next day what would happen if Hinata did come back. Neji had kept up the act of Hinata running away for all that time by the time but maintaining that meant that he, Hanabi nor any of the other Hyuuga that cared for Hinata, morn for her properly, and none of then could say anything against the assassination because it was a decision of the elders. Neji couldn't take the guilt and put the picture in a drawer that night. Back in the present Neji adjusted his collar to stop it pinching his neck and he turned away from the mirror, and walked to his desk to pick up a charm, a pure sliver kenji meaning 'fortune' it had been a birthday present from Hinata, at the time he had discarded it in his drawer as a useless trinket but now it was one for the few things that was linked to Hinata.

"I'll make the clan better…" he quietly promised the picture. It had stayed in his drawer one night then he pulled it back out, it was going to be a reminder of things that needed to change in the clan and that he could do it now. The Hyuugas gathered in the compounds main square, it was a clan affair so no outsiders where welcome. On a platform resting against the main families house sat the elders on the platform and Hiashi was there as well looking rather smug with himself, and behind him was Neji. Hiashi started explaining how Neji was gifted beyond expectations and therefore was being adopted into the main family for the good of the clan. Hiashi scanned the crowd in front of him, most of the branch families looked a little down cast, they missed the gentle heiress. Two ANBU where near the front of the crowd with their masks on, Hiashi didn't dwell on it, there where other Hyuuga ANBU scattered about as well. The whole thing was nearly over but there was one more thing he had to do.

"Does any one object to Neji becoming the new heir?" he droned knowing no one would.

"I do" came a clear voice from the crowd, a murmur traveled through the crowd Hiashi glared into the gathering trying to find the source of the voice.

"Who said that?" he demanded, one of the two ANBU near the front stepped forward out of the crowd, the ANBU wore a fox mask with an apprentice symbol on the right cheek.

"What reason do you have to stop this?"

"There is another worthy heir to the Hyuuga clan, other than him."

"Hanabi is too young!" Hiashi raised his voice.

"It wasn't Hanabi I was referring too." The ANBU also spoke louder.

"Hinata is dead, who are you anyway?" Hiashi hissed dangerously and Neji joined the glare, he couldn't let this chance slip him by.

"My name is Monoki, but after today I'll have my real name back" the ANBU said with an equally dangerous tone.

_HER! How dare she! _Neji thought to himself. Hiashi's glare intensified.

"What is that meant to mean?" Neji muttered.

"oh and what is your 'real' name?" Hiashi said with a sarcastic tone. The ANBU reached up with both hands, one flicked back the dark hood revealing purple hair and the other hand pulled off the mask, then tan faced girl had her eyes closed as she slipped her mask under her cowl, then raising her face to Hiashi opened her eyes.

"Hyuuga Hinata!"

_End chapter 32_

* * *

_(Uses anti-fanboy bat to deflect object thrown at her for the cliff hanger) Don't hurt me!!!!_

**Did you like people? Well you know the drill Read and Review Please and Thank You……… FANBOY!!!**

_WHERE!!!???? (ducks behind a laughing Takara brandishing the bat) Not funny…_


	33. Chapter 33:Truth Revealed, Bird Resealed

_Well it's the bit you've all been waiting for!! WOOT!!_

_**Thanks to Erizibang and RangerH who betaed in Skips absence, now lets get the popcorn this will be GOOD**_

_You replaced ME!?_

_U fucked off to B__elfast! Don't complain!!_

_(mutters) not my fault…_

_I'll not keep you, READ!_

* * *

**Truth Revealed, Bird Resealed**

(Title by Skip, Cuz LMD couldn't decide)

The courtyard was overcome with a stunned silence, Neji's jaw was on the stage, Hiashi's eyes widened. Hinata was alive!? Hinata was glaring right at Hiashi with a stone cold gaze, Hiashi quickly changed his open mouth into a sneer. Neji's shock melted to joy, she was alive after all.

"what do you think you're doing?" Hiashi spat.

"Reclaiming what is mine! My name and title!" Hinata shot back with equal spite.

"You where banished from the clan you have no right to contest this!" Hiashi jumped down from the platform and stalked closer to the girl, Hinata stood on her ground and kept eye contact, Neji noted how Hinata didn't flinch as he came nearer.

"You 'banished' me because you thought I was weak, and now you're naming a new heir, the clan laws state if I can beat the new candidate than I can reclaim my right!" a murmur ran through the crowd, some of the Hyuuga's shifted uneasily. Hiashi narrowed his eyes then smirked and looked back over his shoulder to the elders. They had lent close together muttering one nodded then stood up. He walked slowly down the steps of the platform and towards the two glaring people.

"That isn't in the laws" Hiashi said with confidence, looking down his nose at Hinata.

"Actually… Hiashi-san, it is" Said the elder as he stopped beside him. Hiashi turned on the elder.

"What?"

"It is in the laws, she can challenge Neji for her right to reenter the clan." As elder spoke, Hiashi gritted his teeth. "And if you think about it, she has escaped assassination and was able to hide in plain sight for nearly five months now, I believe she's earned it, don't you." The elder smiled discreetly at Hinata, he had been against the exile to start with. Hiashi's lip was twitching, it was too late to wave to the ANBU perched on the roof to kill her and it was far to public now. Hiashi spun around.

"Neji!" he called and pointed to the ground next to him. Neji jumped off the platform and walked over and nodded to Hinata, she only glared back. Hiashi sized Hinata up then sneered at her.

"Alright then, this will be allowed, the winner will become the heir, the loser will branded with the Caged Bird Seal." As he said this he looked at Hinata who still hadn't blinked in their staring stand off. Neji looked from Hiashi to Hinata.

"Wha?" Hiashi and the elder went back to the platform, as he walked past Hiashi grabbed Neji's arm and leant down to hiss in Neji's ear.

"Destroy her!" Neji was torn, this was Hinata! But his dream was there too, how could he choose.

"Hinata, this isn't worth it, you gotta get out of here before its too late. You can't win this…"

"Shut up Neji" she said sharply still glaring over his shoulder to her father on the platform. Neji glanced at the ground, this wasn't the Hinata he knew anymore,

"I won't give up my one chance so easily!" He said.

"Then defend it…" Hinata said shifting her gaze to him and waited for his first move. Neji's guilt disappeared, he had felt sorry for Hinata but this wasn't Hinata anymore, it was Monoki.

"Fine… I'll end this quickly!" He got in to the gentle fist stance and charged, Hinata stood her ground and threw off her cowl, underneath she was dressed in a full shinobi uniform complete with Chuunin jacket even her short swords where sheathed in their usual place across the base of her back. Hinata was in a cross between a Tai Jutsu and Gentle fist stance and waited for him. Neji ran right in with 64 strikes and Hinata countered with her Protection of the Eight Trigrams, 64 palms, with her arms moving at a blur she was matching Neji's speed and knocking away all of his strikes, she stretched her arm upwards, brought it down in a chopping motion, tucked it into her stomach then trust it out, in that movement she knocked Neji's hand out of the way and slammed her palm into his stomach.

"Jyuurikan Yuuen!" (grand Jyuurikan) Neji gasped as the air was forced from his lungs, he was propelled backwards and rolled on the ground until he hit the wall. Neji opened his eyes in time to see a kunai coming for him.

"AGH!" he dropped and rolled forward back to his feet away from the wall, the kunai struck where his head used to be, He looked from the kunai to Hinata, she was standing there with one of her short swords drawn and pointing at him. With her other hand she made a hand sign and the sword disappeared from her hand, Neji knew that technique, it was a favorite of Tenten's, the sword reappeared in the air above him along with a multitude of replicas, Dancing Blades, Neji grinned he knew the secret behind this one, all but one of the blades was harmless clone, the real blade would have a chakra residue on it caused by the shinobi controlling it. Neji activated his Byakugan to look for the one blade. But all the blades had traces of chakra on the handles, they where real clones and he was surrounded.

"Shit!" The blades darted towards him from all directions, Neji did the only thing he could, his Heavenly Spin Technique. He spun and sent out a chakra burst to knock away the blades. Hinata grinned, just what she wanted, Hinata drew her second short and charged in. she channeled chakra into her blade until it was coated with a layer of blue energy, with this charged bade she hit the wall of Neji's heavenly spin with an upward slice, the chakra of Neji's defense was dissipated and Hinata ran in. Neji tried to stop his spin to defend himself but Hinata was already on him she got him with another strike. Neji staggered away but before he could get back into a fighting stance Hinata was on him again throwing punches and kicks, Neji blocked them. His heavenly spin was out she could beat that so he had to keep this close range, if he could strike the chakra points in her shoulders and biceps he could cut off the chakra to her arms. It seemed Hinata knew this was what he was thinking, she was attacking him and keeping him too far to land any decent strikes, she was using kicks. Her long legs meant her kicks kept his palm strikes out of the picture, and another thing was her kicks where strong. Neji flipped over her and landed behind her, she swung around with a kick aimed at his mid section, but Neji ducked and swiped her leg out from under her, she landed on her back and before Neji could attack she rolled back onto her hands and went into the striking recovery move Neji jumped back out of reach of her outstretched legs, one leg touched down and Hinata launched into a series of kicks, Neji had been expecting one roundhouse kick like Lee but Hinata was more flexible than Lee and was able to string together multiple kicks, Neji held up his arms and Hinata struck him a few times on the forearms. Over come with the kicks Neji jumped back out of the way, He rubbed at his fore arm it was getting numb, he looked at it with his Byakugan and saw a few of his chakra pathways where closed off. But how, she didn't hit him with her hands, now looking at Hinata he got his answer, She had a build up of chakra in both hands and both feet. She was combining Tai jutsu with Gentle Fist, even he couldn't maintain focused chakra in his hands AND feet. As he watched the intensity of the chakra in her hands grew. Hinata's hands became surrounded with a white haze, and she ran towards him, abandoning the kick attacks for straight out palm strikes, Neji knew that her hands had to be avoided at al costs, using all his speed he dodged her attacks and tried to hit back. He saw and opening and trust his palm in to hit her in the chest, but she spun around behind him, Neji turned quickly with a kick and Hinata back flipped out of the way.

"That was close…" Neji puffed looking from the crouched Hinata on the other side of the court yard to the trail of hand marks scorched in the ground from where her white hazed hands touched the ground. Hinata stayed crouched and activated her own Byakugan, the first time for the entire fight after looking at Neji for a few moments she stood up and deactivated her Byakugan again. A few feet way from were she landed was the sword Neji knocked away earlier, she walked over and picked it up, after sheathing it Hinata crossed her arms.

"What are you doing!?" Neji demanded.

"This fight is over…" She said.

"You forfeit?" Neji asked surprised.

"No… I have already won…"

"WHAT?" Neji scowled, how could she call the fight like that.

"You baka, haven't you noticed you can't move your arms?" she shouted back. Neji started to laugh at first but then released, she was right, his legs too, as he watched his own body with his Byakugan his chakra paths where shutting down one by one. He fell to his knees.

"How?" he stammered, Hinata tapped her right shoulder, Neji looked over to his own shoulder, there on the white material was a single fingerprint scorched into it. She had got him after all.

"Not as efficient as hitting you with the palm, but still effective…"

"But…"

"Night Neji…" Neji fell forward and blacked out, Hinata had won. Hiashi's jaw dropped, was this really the runt he'd discarded? How could she come back so strong? And to that fact, where the hell had she been? Hinata shifted her gaze from the unconscious Neji to someone in the crowd, the cat faced ANBU nodded discreetly, then Hinata turned back to her father with a smug smirk he had never seen on his daughters face. A dull rumble of hushed speech ran through the crowd behind her.

"That settles the matter… Hinata is still the heir of the Hyuuga clan" the elder called, she got a number of cheers from the crowd. Hiashi wondered to himself, maybe this could work out after all. Hiashi walked up to Hinata who was looking at Neji again, the boy was now being seen to by other Hyuugas. Hiashi set his hand on Hinata's shoulder.

"Look's like you've come a long way after all." Hinata slapped his hand off rather violently and glared at him.

"Don't touch me!" she hissed, "I may be a Hyuuga again but you are nothing to me!" Hiashi, was surprised at the drastic change in the normally submissive girl.

"Alright then," he was still her father she come to see that soon enough. "Now then you have won, Neji has lost, you know what to do" Hiashi indicated Neji's forehead as he was lifted onto a stretcher to go to the hospital. Hinata stepped over to Neji and looked at him, the faint expression of shock was still there on his face.

"Do it!" Hiashi said behind her.

* * *

Tenten wandered down the road that lead past the Hyuuga compound, she wondered how the ceremony was going for Neji, not that she was hanging around or anything. She heard a disturbance from over the walls and the gates opened. A number of Hyuugas came out of the compound with a stretcher, on with was…

"NEJI!" Tenten jogged to the stretcher, the boy was out cold and a cloth covered his forehead.

"What happened?" she asked as they walked on with the stretcher.

"Hinata-san came back, she challenged Neji-san for the position of heir, she beat him, bad." One Hyuuga guard said watching Neji disappear around a corner.

"Hinata!?" Tenten didn't know what to do, go see Hinata or go check on Neji, then again since when was Hinata strong enough or confident enough to stand up to Neji or Hiashi. She decided that after the fight Hinata would be preoccupied with clan matters, that and she wasn't allowed in, so she went to see Neji instead.

* * *

The crowd dispersed and Hinata moved into the main families home along with Hiashi and the elders, Takara, still masked tagged along, staying close to Hinata, she didn't trust Hiashi at all. Their where matters to discuss, mostly they wanted to know where Hinata had been all this time and how she had improved.

"That would be because of Takara." Hinata said plainly, looking to her left at the ANBU standing with crossed arms. The others regarded her with interest, Takara, seeing no point in it, took off her mask and put in inside her cowl. "When you abandoned me," Hinata said to Hiashi, "Takara took me on as her apprentice and trained me, she made me see that I was much stronger than you let me believe." Takara gave a little smile as Hinata went on.

"Tell us then, why do you wear the uniform of a chuunin?" asked on of the elders.

"Because I am a chuunin, I believe you watched me in the exams Hiashi." Hinata would speak formally to the elders but when ever she looked at him a degree of spite entered her voice, because he was the clan leader, it was ultimately his choice to send the assassin after all. Hiashi slightly furrowed his brow trying to make sense of what she had said.

"I surely would have noticed if you where in the last exams." He said.

"Then that makes you more of an idiot, I was on Sakura's team, the masked girl with the dragon techniques." She smirked confidently at Hiashi's deepening scowl, one of the elders faked a coughing fit to mask the laugh. Hinata was enjoying this, although she was scared and doubtful the whole day, once she had stepped forward and revealed herself she felt great and teasing Hiashi like this was perfect, although not complete, revenge. The elders widely agreed that Hinata would regain her name and title, more than a few where happy to see her safe, after that they left it was just Hinata, Hiashi and a little uncomfortable Takara. She looked from one Hyuuga to another, Hinata had definitely inherited her fathers stern glare. The silence between them was almost deafening and the lightening passing from their eyes was almost visible, Takara was scared to move in case the tiniest noise set the two off.

"Nee-chan…" Hinata said quietly with a hostile tone, which was directed at Hiashi, "could you wait outside for me, I want to talk to Hiashi alone for a minute…" Takara considered saying no but something told her that if she didn't agree she'd regret it later, Hinata was small, but when she was angry like this she could really do some damage.

"I'll just be outside the door Kit" Takara got to her feet and left the room, she made herself comfortable on the step to the courtyard. She strained to listen to the talking inside, but she didn't have to for long.

"I'VE SHAMED THE FAMILY!!!" Hinata's voice raised.

"Well you ran off with that…woman out there, you turned your back on your clans techniques…" Hiashi began a little quieter but still with a raised tone, Hinata cut over him.

"If I remember right it was you that chased me off by attempting to assassinate me! And Takara, you can't say anything against her, she's been more of a parent to me in these last five months than you've ever been! As for turning my back on the clan ways, were you watching that fight? The techniques I used where derived from the Gentle Fist style!"

"What about the exams? You showed no Hyuuga pride there!"

"How could I!? You were there! If I'd showed any indication of who I was I wouldn't have lived to get the promotion!" Hiashi said nothing. "SEE!!"

"Enough! That is over with and in the past, now that you're back and much stronger than you used to be you can resume your training with me to further improv.."

"OH MY GOD!? You seriously think I will forgive you just like that! There is no way I will even consider taking lessons from you ever again! Where was your aid when I really needed it! You have done nothing but berate me my entire life, and now that I've shown I'm stronger than your 'prodigy' I'm suddenly your daughter! Five months ago you said I had no right to call you father, now I say you have no right to call me your daughter!" With that the sliding door to the room snapped open and Hinata stormed out of the room and past Takara heading out of the compound, Takara looked back in the room, Hiashi looked like he'd just been smacked in the face as he stared after the fuming Hinata, Takara tried hard to suppress openly laughing at the man, he had wrongly assumed that Hinata was trying to prove herself to him and that all she was seeking was his approval, but that goal of Hinata's was shattered long ago, she had done this for her own pride, she no longer gave a shit what Hiashi thought of her. In Hinata's mind there were only two people who she really wanted approval from and he already had it from them, both Takara and Naruto had supported her from the start, that was all that mattered to her. Takara trotted up behind the fuming Hinata and just followed her as she muttered angrily to herself. Hinata eventually stopped and sat down on the banks of the lake near the training grounds and huffed.

"Are you finished talking to yourself or should I book you a room in the loony bin?" Takara asked.

"huh? Oh sorry…" Hinata offered a weak smile.

"You okay?" Takara sat next to her.

"Yeah… I suppose…I'm Hinata again…"

"But?"

"He's just so AAGGHHH" She made a throttling motion with her hands. Takara laughed.

"As long as you don't do that to the real one."

"Why not? It would be a great stress reliever" Both women laughed.

"I know it would but you can't…"

"Damn, but anyway I can't believe he acted like nothing had happened, like I was his little girl again… still I guess it was all worth it just to get back at him, did you see his face." Hinata lay back on the grass and smiled to herself remembering the face he had pulled when she took off her mask.

"One thing though…" Takara said leaning back on her hands.

"yeah?" Hinata cracked one eye open to look at Takara.

"A parent to you?"

"Aaahhh …… Yeah……" for the first time in a while Hinata turned completely beetroot red, and Takara howled with laughter.

* * *

Tenten hovered in the hall until the nurse was done with Neji, she was annoyed and worried and she was getting restless. Finally the nurse came out and held up his hands before Tenten could harass him again.

"Yes you can see him, when he awakes up he may not be able to move. Someone done a job on his chakra pathways, but give him a day and he'll be out of here." The male nurse pulled off his gloves and walked away as Tenten headed in the room. Neji was on the bed in the private room the nurse had changed him into pajamas. There was a bandage around his forehead. Tenten when over he was out cold, Tenten jumped up to sit on the window sill. She was gazing out into the street, daydreaming, when Ino skidded in the door.

"Hey its true!"

"Huh! What's true?" Tenten asked, Ino had startled her and she nearly fell off the windowsill.

"That Neji got a beat down." Ino walked into the room.

"Hang on, what are you doing here?" Tenten asked.

"I'm on duty… but what are you doing here?" The medic nin's face twisted into a evil grin. Tenten hid a blush.

"He's my team mate I'm just dropping in to make sure he's okay…" Ino raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah… so, no one told me what happened." Ino said sneaking a peek at the chart, "looks like he was beat down by another Hyuuga, something go wrong at the adoption ceremony?"

"Yeah… apparently Hinata came back and challenged him and by the looks of it… kicked his ass…" Tenten said. Ino nearly dropped the chart.

"Hinata? She's back!" Ino asked with a grin, "and 'she' beat up Neji?" Ino grinned to herself, "Well I gotta get back to rounds I'll see you later." Ino walked out of the room flicking open her mobile phone, thumbs working quickly to text Shikamaru and more then likely the rest of the group. As she left Tenten tutted and got back on the windowsill, it wasn't long after that before Neji started to stir. His eyes fluttered open and he moaned, he felt like a mob of people was trying to kick and claw their way out of his brain. He tried to sit up but could barely more.

"Nurse says you can't move for a while." Tenten said from the window. Neji looked over and she raised a hand in greeting. "Hinata's back then?" Tenten asked.

"Yeah…" Neji said glumly, He rocked a bit and tried to sit up. "Could…could you … help me up…" he muttered quietly. Tenten turned her head sideways.

"What's this, Hyuuga Neji asking for help?"

"Just shut up and help me sit up!" he snapped, Tenten giggled and went over, she picked up the remote control to raise the top of the bed for Neji. When he was in a relaxed sitting position she let go of the button. Neji muttered a thanks, he looked over at Tenten who had taken back her seat on the window, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the window, there was a bandage around his forehead and the front of his head was throbbing painfully… suddenly he remembered the conditions of the fight. He had lost, Hinata was the heir and that meant he was…

Neji's hands twitched as he tried to reach up to remove the bandage. Tenten saw him getting distressed and trying to move.

"What's wrong?"

"Tenten, take off the bandage." He said, there was worry in his eyes.

"What?"

"Please!" he pleaded. Tenten was worried, Neji was never scared like this. Slowly Tenten started unwrapping the bandage, she noticed Neji was sweating, he was nearly hyperventilating. She got the bandage off and Neji turned towards the window to see his reflection, his forehead was clear, the only thing there was a large bruise and a cut he'd got when he fell. He tried to reach up to check his head for sure.

"They told me about the conditions when they brought you in, Hinata refused to put it back on you and stopped Hiashi from doing it either." Tenten said.

"What?" Neji stared down at his hands, she had refused to brand him again, even after he fought her like that, she still stood up for him. Neji felt terrible, he was fully prepared to put Hinata through that just to keep his dream.

"You okay?" Tenten asked moving to a chair next to the bed, the windowsill was cold.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" He muttered and tried to get himself a drink from the cup on the bedside table, but his body still was numb. "Kuso…" Tenten rolled her eyes, and lifted the cup and held it to his lips for him when she took it away, some water dripped down his chin. Tenten chuckled at him and wiped it off with her thumb and Neji fought hard to fight the blush rising on his cheeks.

* * *

Later on every one was in the flat, due to a meeting called by Ino's mass text, to discuss the fact that Hinata was back, Tenten was sulking in the corner because she was kicked out of the hospital after visiting hours ended but when she left Neji could move his left arm and wriggle a few toes. Ino explained his injuries and the rest speculated on where she had been all this time, Sakura and Shikamaru said nothing this for Hinata to tell. The door rattled, a couple of curses muttered in under tones and a bang as the door was kicked.

"Oh hey Monoki! I thought you left a few days ago, anyway wait till you hear this, Hinata came back!" Ino said in a rushed breath, Hinata stood in the door way.

"Huh…?" Sakura rotated her finger around the lower portion of her face and simply said,

"Mask…"

"Oh… sorry force of habit." She said and pulled down the mask, several jaws dropped at the relieved mouth and chin, Kiba had to stem a nose bleed. Next she reached up and pulled off the glasses and flashed her pale eyes. There was a stunned silence in the room.

"Well you know how to make an entrance…" Shikamaru said lazily from beside Ino.

"Yeah good to talk to you without the mask again…" Sakura added, Ino looked from her boyfriend to her best friend then to Hinata.

"You two KNEW!!!" Kiba spluttered. Shikamaru shrugged, Sakura nodded.

"Why?" asked Chouji. Hinata took her usual spot on the end of the sofa.

"Yeah… you remember that rumor about the assassination… that was true…" Hinata said and reached down to pet the large Akamaru, the dog panted happily.

"Seriously?" asked Chouji.

"Yeah, don't tell anyone I told you about this though, it's something I'll really don't want widely known."

"So this whole time, Monoki has been… you?" Lee confirmed.

"Yup… good to know you guys missed me" Hinata pointed to the picture on the dresser and smiled.

"It's good to know you are well Hinata, welcome back." Shino said quietly from the corner.

"Thanks." The surprise melted away and they group tried to combine their image of Monoki into their old image of Hinata and chatted happily to her.

"So let me get this straight both of you knew?" Ino said to Shikamaru and Sakura.

"Yup," Sakura answered, Shikamaru just nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ino whined.

"Because, no offense but you're the biggest gossip in Konoha" Sakura answered, Ino opened her mouth to argue but closed it again, she was right.

* * *

Meanwhile a Konoha spy staggered towards the city-sized village. His team had been three but after a six month mission in the hidden Sound village they where compromised just before their withdrawal. They had been forced to make a break for it with all the information they had. But at the border of Fire the sound pursuit teams caught up with them. It was a standard team of five, four chuunin and a jonin and considering it was five on three, the three leaf jonin did a great job of fending them off. They had killed all of the sound and suffered one loss. The two remaining jonin continued as quickly as their injuries would allow, the other jonin died due to poison, a weapon that Orochimaru was using more and more now. The last jonin limped in the gate and with the help of one of the gate guards moved quickly to update the hokage. Orochimaru was gathering his forces again, he was preparing for war.

* * *

"Where you going? We're gonna put a film on soon" Kiba said, it had taken a while to get over the shock that his crush turned out to be his best friend.

"There's something I gotta do , I'll be back later on" Hinata smiled and had the usual fight with the door to try open it. Hinata walked to the hospital and asked to see Neji. Neji perked up as the door opened hoping for Tenten he was disappointed to see Hinata.

"Hey Neji…" she walked over to the bed, "I'm sorry…" she said, Neji was taken aback, he'd not been expecting that, gloating maybe, but not that.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"I'm sorry…" Hinata repeated, and sat on the end of the bed.

"For what, Hinata-san?" Neji asked, she'd kicked his ass up and down the court yard, she had earned the san on the end of her name.

"For stopping the adoption, I know it's all you really wanted…" Hinata looked a little ashamed of herself as she played with the edge of the blanket.

"…What?" Neji was getting worried he didn't think he was going to like where this was going.

"Neji… you and I both know that I never wanted to be the clan leader…"

"What are you saying?" Hinata gave a little smile.

"I've spoke to the elders and I'm supporting your adoption into the main family and becoming the heir" Neji's jaw dropped, his mouth worked but no words came.

"What…why?" he stammered, Hinata sighed and pulled herself further on the bed so she wasn't balancing on the edge anymore.

"Neji all I wanted was my name back, and I have that now, I'm not cut out to lead a whole clan besides I like traveling with Nee-chan and I can't do that anymore if I do become heir. You know what needs to be done and what needs to change more than I would. But my only condition is that you keep me in the loop when it comes to the big decisions okay?" Hinata gave a little smile. Neji lifted away the covers and slipped out of the bed and then he did something he had never done willingly in his entire life until now, he got on his knees and bowed to Hinata.

"Arigatou Hinata-san, for everything" he said to the floor, he felt a hand under his arm as Hinata pulled him up from the ground to his shaky feet.

"You don't have to bow to me, you're the clan heir now…" Hinata said softly, Neji smiled as Hinata steered him back to the bed, his feet where about to give out from under him but weather that was from the paralyzing palm or the shock of what Hinata had just done for him was debatable.

"I've also arranged for you to just 'be' the heir, so no annoying ceremonies to wait for." Hinata chuckled at Neji's growing smile.

"So when you get outta here you'll be in the main family." Hinata said sitting back on the bed.

"What about you?" Neji asked.

"Well, I'm still Takara's apprentice so I'll be staying with her, but if you mean where the clan is concerned, I'll be next in line after you, since you're older than me. So does all this sound good to you?"

"Yeah…" Neji nodded.

"Great, well I gotta go, I'm not really meant to be in here, I kinda sneaked past the night nurse." Hinata went for the less risky way out the window.

"Well bye Neji"

"Bye, Hinata-san"

* * *

"Told you I'd be back before you knew it." Takara smirked when she caught up with Gai later that day. Gai was a little surprised to see her so soon but me wasn't going to complian.

"Good to see you didn't go right back to spandex when I left." Takara teased.

"Yeah, well these are a little comfortable…" Gai muttered plucking at the jeans and jacket, Takara chuckled and she smiled, "So did you miss me that much?"

"Well yeah, but that's not the full reason I'm back."

"What is then?"

"I brought Hinata back." She explained the whole Hinata/Monoki thing to Gai over a meal.

"So this whole time…" Gai said as they finished.

"Yup"

"Takara-sama!" a chuunin jogged up to Takara and Gai as they walked out of the restaurant.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Tsunade-hime wants to see you as quickly as possible" the chuunin puffed, he was red faced from running.

"What about?" Takara withdrew her hand from Gai's to cross her arms and listen to the chuunin.

"It's classified" he said. "Sixth wants to see you now" he rephrased.

"Alright, I'll catch up with you later Gai." He gave her a quick peak on the cheek before she darted off towards the tower. When Takara came into the Hokage's office Tsunade was leaning on one hand looking stressed, on a chair in front of her desk was several drops of blood and some more on the floor next to an open medical box minus the bandages.

"Why do I get the feeling this won't end well" Takara muttered to herself and scratched her head. Tsunade heard her and looked up.

"Good take a seat, you won't like this."

"Thought so," Takara looked at the blood specked chair, "Know what, I'm okay standing… so what's the bad news?"

"Orochimaru" Takara scowled and curled her lips in a silent growl. "a little while ago one of our spies barely made it back from the hidden Sound village, and it seems Orochimaru is gathering more forces and carrying out more genetic experiments to try and make the perfect warriors."

"And what have we got?" Takara asked, Tsunade sighed heavily.

"The last attack wiped out most of our high ranking ninja, we were able to bring up our forces with a large number of new genin graduating and a much larger amount of teams passing means we could afford more to promote more genin and chuunin to high ranks where skills allowed."

"So what do you need me to do?"

"We'll need more intelligence on Orochimaru forces and plans if we can get them, so we'll need to mobilize ANBU intelligence gathering so I want your experience on this. Where have you encountered Orochimaru's agents and bases and where would it be best to send the ANBU teams." They spent the next three hours discussing ANBU deployment.

"Well that's about it," Takara said and slid off the desk.

"Yeah, thanks…" Tsunade was chewing on a pencil looking over the maps and reports from other missions. "I want you to stay in the village for a while, just in case I need you to take care of a delicate matter."

"Like what?"

" Well if the opportunity arises, Orochimaru's assassination." Takara nodded and both where quiet for a minute while Tsunade scribbled notes in a corner of a map.

"Well unless there's anything else I think we're done for now"

"There is one thing…" Takara said.

"huh?" Tsunade looked up. Takara explained her request while Tsunade listened carefully.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked raising an eyebrow at Takara.

"Yes, I think it will work out" Takara nodded.

"Well, we'll put it to a test and see what the result is" Tsunade agreed.

"Okay then, well I'm gonna go then if you don't need anything else…" Takara pointed with her thumb over her shoulder towards the door and paused for a second waiting to see if Tsunade called her back, when she didn't Takara left. She sundered back to her dorm, wondering how long she had spent in the hokage's office as it was now dark. When she got to the dorm she found Hinata there in pajamas making herself a sandwich before bed.

"I thought you'd have moved back into the Hyuuga compound." Takara said stealing one of Hinata sandwiches.

"Hey!" she swiped at Takara but didn't pursue her lost snack "I'm not moving back there until _**he**_apologizes" she said munching into the sandwich. Takara shrugged.

"Yeah okay… Hey Tsunade wants to see how you've improved tomorrow, you'll be leading a team of two genin in an exercise against another chuunin and two genin team." Takara called as she

went into the bedroom to get changed for bed.

"What's the exercise?" Hinata asked.

"Dunno yet, we'll see tomorrow." Hinata chewed thoughtfully on her sandwich. She was back in the village, she no longer had to hide her face or name. She was Hinata again. But she couldn't help but wonder, now that all that was over, what the future would hold for her.

_End of story (well the first one anyway)_

* * *

_Hinata's training is over, and now comes a bigger challenge Orochimaru is gathering strength and a war is coming_

_**Don't be so dramatic…**_

_Er… yeah… well this one is over look out for the next installment of this story it will be posted not long after this (maybe half an hour later) and it will be called _After the Training, The War, _where we continue to follow Hinata through her missions, love life and the on coming war._

_Preview to follow!!_


	34. Preview

Preview.

Hinata choked on the blood in her throat and fell to the ground, Naruto fell beside her. He wasn't moving anymore, the eighteen year old Hinata reached for her boyfriend but had no strength, her eyes flicked around the devastation around them. The Sounds main force had hit them hard, Hinata, Naruto and all the other Leaf Shinobi had fought with all their might, but the result was lost on Hinata, as she lay there and watched Naruto match her struggle to breathe, Takara had disappeared in the fighting long ago along with Jiraiya and Hinata had no idea what had become of them, Konoha was in flames but weather the leaf had driven out the sound or had succumbed was unknown. Hinata's breathing slowed as she thought back on the events that had lead up to this terrible battle…

_The Squeal is called _**After the Training, The War **_and the start has been posted check it out!!_


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